12% of older self-published indie games share a bundle with another studio

Of 4,108 self-published indie games that launched on Steam from 2020 to 2022, 475 (11.6%) sit in a bundle with another studio’s game. Six in ten sit in no bundle at all.

If your game is out and selling slowly, a bundle is one of the few store tools that costs nothing, needs no cooldown and puts your game on someone else’s store page. Here are Valve’s rules in plain terms, then what games like yours actually do with them.

A bundle is a standing offer on every page it touches

Everything in this section comes from Valve’s Bundles and collaborative bundles documentation, read October 2, 2026.

Rule	What Valve says
Types	Complete the Set: buyers pay only for what they don’t own. Must Purchase Together: only buyers who own none of it.
Discount	A set percentage off the current price of each item, up to 95%
Sales	The bundle can’t go on sale itself. When its games go on sale, the bundle price follows.
Partners	Bundles can span developers and publishers. Every game approves joining and any later change.
Leaving	Any participant can pull its game out at once, without approval
Money	Valve pays each partner for its own package. Bundle sales show inside each game’s normal sales.
Store pages	Up to three bundles show on each game’s page, cheapest first unless you pin one
Wishlists	Setting or changing a bundle discount sends no wishlist notification
Floor	Each item must stay above $0.49 after all discounts in a Complete the Set bundle

Three things matter more than the rest for a game that’s already out.

There’s no revenue split to negotiate. A buyer of a two-game bundle buys two packages, and each developer is paid for their own. The only shared decisions are the name, the games and the discount.

It stacks with sales. A 10% bundle on top of a 60% seasonal discount sells each game at 64% off. It’s not a discount event, so it uses none of the 30-day cooldowns in Steam’s discount rules.

Owners of your partner’s game see you. In a Complete the Set bundle, someone who already owns their game pays only for yours, with the bundle discount on top. Their players become a standing audience for your game.

One more line from Valve, worth knowing before anyone offers you a “bundle slot”: “under no circumstances is it okay to charge other developers to participate in a bundle.” Valve made collaborative bundles self-serve in June 2021.

Most older indie games are in no bundle at all, and small ones rarely partner

We read the purchase options of 5,860 paid indie games launched on Steam from 2020 to 2022 with at least 10 reviews in their first year, then the contents and credits of all 5,714 bundles they appear in. Each game is classed by the widest partner it shares any bundle with.

For the 4,108 self-published games, the usual partner is themselves. 24.2% bundle with the same developer’s other games, 4.4% only with their own DLC or soundtrack, and 11.6% with another studio’s game. The other 59.7% have no bundle.

1. No bundle59.7%
2. Own DLC or soundtrack only4.4%
3. Developer's other games24.2%
4. Another studio's game11.6%

4,108 self-published paid indie games launched on Steam 2020 to 2022 with 10+ Steam-purchase reviews in year one. Each game is counted once, by the widest partner in any of its bundles; 0.1% share only a publisher's catalogue and are not shown. US store, bundle IDs read October 1, 2026, contents and credits October 3.

Source: Strike Two analysis of Steam store data

Games with a publisher bundle more: 60.4% are in at least one bundle, against 40.3% of self-published games. 28.5% sit in a bundle of their publisher’s catalogue, and 26.1% hold another studio’s game.

That second figure is no surprise. A publisher already knows the other studios and owns the relationships.

A solo developer has to find a partner, send a link and agree a discount. The tool is the same; the address book isn’t. We know that part well. Writing to a studio you’ve never met to ask a favour is harder than any Steamworks form.

The gap is widest where it would matter most. Among self-published games:

• 10 to 99 reviews in year one: 8.1% share a bundle with another studio (259 of 3,210).
• 100 to 999: 19.7% (143 of 725).
• 1,000 or more: 42.2% (73 of 173).

Bigger games get asked. A game with 40 reviews has to ask, and most never do. That is 3,210 small games, nine in ten of them without a partner bundle, whose players could be someone else’s buyers.

Games in partner bundles are more active, and we can’t say why

In every size band, self-published games that share a bundle with another studio drew more reviews after their first year than games with no bundle at all. We measured reviews from year two through August 2026 as a share of year one’s.

Year-one reviews	With another studio	No bundle
10 to 19	51% (94 games)	36% (1,010)
20 to 49	73% (107)	43% (816)
50 to 99	84% (58)	59% (268)
100 to 299	108% (89)	75% (229)
300 to 999	136% (54)	89% (94)
1,000 or more	114% (73)	75% (36)

Read this carefully. We can’t see when a bundle was made, so this is not a measure of what bundles do.

A developer still working on a game is more likely to set up a bundle and more likely to keep it selling. Both can be true at once. What the table does say is that the games still finding players are, more often, the ones sharing shelf space.

Most bundles take 10% off

Across the 5,702 live bundles, the median bundle discount is 10%, and 53% are set to exactly 10%. Partner bundles with another studio are smaller and just as shallow: a median of two games, and two in three at 10%.

That’s sensible. The bundle discount sits on top of every sale your partner runs, so a small number keeps the bundle from undercutting either game. Valve allows up to 95%, but a deep bundle discount turns into a permanent second price for your game.

When a bundle is the wrong move

• You can’t vouch for the partner’s game. A bundle ties your store page to theirs. Either side can pull out at once, but until someone does, their game is on your page.
• The partner’s players won’t want your game. A bundle is a recommendation with both names on it. A mismatched pairing teaches nothing and can draw reviews from players who were never your audience.
• Your game is very cheap and sells deep. A $2.99 game at 85% off is $0.45, under the $0.49 floor for each item in a Complete the Set bundle. Check your sale prices against it.
• You might sell or transfer the game. Control of an existing bundle stays with its owner after a transfer. Our transfer guide covers what moves with the app and what doesn’t.

What to do with a game that’s already out

1. Bundle your own things first. If you have a soundtrack, DLC or another game, a Complete the Set bundle at 10 to 15% gives your page a second price to show, and it needs no one else’s approval.
2. Pick one partner whose players overlap with yours. Same genre, similar price, similar review score. Look at games your players already review or follow.
3. Make it collaborative and send the link. You create the bundle with your game, switch on collaborative mode, and send the invite. Every game in it approves the details before it goes live.
4. Time it with something real. A bundle is quiet by design: no wishlist email. Launch it alongside an update, which can open an update visibility round, or just before a seasonal sale, when traffic is highest.
5. Write the partner’s name in your announcement. Both studios posting about the bundle is the only marketing a bundle gets.

None of this rescues a game on its own. It’s a small, durable thing to set up once, in the same spirit as the long tail we’ve measured: released games keep selling when someone keeps giving players a reason to find them.

How we measured it

The games are the 5,860 paid titles under Steam’s Indie tag that launched from January 2020 to December 2022 and drew 10 or more Steam-purchase reviews in their first year, the same population as our discount study. A game that sold in Early Access first is dated from its first review.

Bundle IDs come from each game’s US purchase options, read October 1, 2026 at 18:21 UTC. We then read all 5,714 bundles and the 12,997 apps inside them from the store’s own item service on October 3 (00:51 to 00:54 UTC). Twelve bundles were no longer visible and are left out.

Each other app in a bundle counts as the game’s own extras if its parent is the game, the same developer if a developer matches, the same publisher if a publisher matches, and another studio otherwise. Names are compared ignoring case, punctuation and legal suffixes. Self-published means no credited publisher of other developers’ games (store records, read September 22, 2026).

We read 14 random “another studio” bundles by hand. All 14 hold a game crediting neither the developer nor the publisher. Ten are plainly partner bundles. Four are mostly one company’s catalogue with an outside or licensed game in it, so “another studio” means a bundle holding another studio’s game, not always a partnership.

The limits. This is a snapshot in one region. Bundle creation dates aren’t public, so the activity table is an association, not an effect. Reviews stand in for sales, and Steam reports bundle sales inside each game’s own sales, so no public number separates them. Review histories run through August 2026.