Distribution & Stores

Where games are sold, hosted and updated. Pairs with build / CI-CD, analytics, multiplayer / netcode (storefronts often bundle networking), mobile-native for mobile distribution, and anti-cheat. For full landscape see Game Development.

PC stores

★ Steam (Steamworks SDK) — free SDK, 30% revenue share, $100 Steam Direct fee per title (refundable after $1k revenue). Largest PC audience, deepest features (achievements, cloud, workshop, Steam Input, Remote Play, Big Picture, SteamOS / Deck Verified). Default PC target.
★ Epic Games Store + Epic Online Services (EOS) — 12% revenue share, EOS SDK is free for any platform (free identity, lobbies, P2P, achievements, anti-cheat). EGS audience is much smaller than Steam but EOS itself is great cross-platform glue.
★ itch.io — revenue share you set yourself (default 10%, can be 0%), the indie / experimental haven. HTML5 hosting, jam tooling, paid + free + pay-what-you-want models.
GOG — DRM-free PC store; manual curation, smaller audience.
Microsoft Store / Xbox — see Xbox Live Creators Program for the indie path.
Humble Store — paid storefront with bundle history.
Discord — Game Store sunset 2019; only Activity / Embedded App SDK left.

PlayStation Partners — paid program + dev kits + NDA. Submission via Sony.
Microsoft Xbox — ID@Xbox is the indie program (free), or paid first-party. Xbox Live Creators Program lets non-NDA indies ship to Xbox cheaply.
Nintendo Switch — apply through Nintendo dev portal; once approved, dev kit + SDK access.
Apple Vision Pro / iPad Game Mode — App Store Connect (see mobile).

See mobile-native for the apps side. Game-specific:

Apple App Store — $99/year Apple Developer + 30% rev share (15% small business < $1M).
Google Play — $25 one-time + 30% (15% under $1M).
F-Droid — free OSS-only.
Aurora Store, Amazon Appstore — secondary.
TestFlight + Google Play Internal Testing — beta channels.

itch.io HTML5 — free hosting.
★ Poki — paid revenue share for hyper-casual / web games; high CPMs in their lane.
★ CrazyGames — paid revenue share, similar to Poki.
Newgrounds — historical web game hub, still active.
Kongregate — legacy.
GameJolt — indie-friendly, free.
Armor Games, Y8 — secondary.

Patreon for ongoing support.
Ko-fi for one-off tips + subscription.
Game Pass / PS Plus / Apple Arcade / Netflix Games — paid platforms; deals are negotiated, not application portals.

Steam Wishlist — the default indie KPI.
Steam Next Fest — quarterly demo event, huge wishlist driver.
Steam Curators, YouTube/Twitch creators, Reddit / Bluesky / Mastodon — the marketing reality.
Howl (formerly Lurkit), Keymailer — paid creator-key distribution.
GameDiscoverCo newsletter — paid, the analytics gold standard.

Steam: achievements, cloud saves, leaderboards, workshop, networking, voice, family share.
EOS: identity, friends, P2P, lobbies, sessions, achievements, leaderboards, EAC.
GOG Galaxy: achievements, leaderboards, multiplayer.
itch: none — pure file hosting + sales + community.

Default PC commercial: Steam.
Indie / jam / experimental: itch.io.
Cross-platform free networking SDK: EOS (works alongside Steam).
Web / casual portals: Poki + CrazyGames.
Console: ID@Xbox first (lowest barrier), then PS Partners and Nintendo as you scale.
Mobile games: App Store + Google Play; F-Droid for OSS.
DRM-free purist: GOG + itch.