61% of Early Access games on Steam show the not-updated warning

On September 15, 2026, 4,889 of the 8,016 released games under Steam’s Early Access tag, 61%, showed Steam’s not-updated warning, a note that the developers hadn’t updated the game or communicated in over a year. If one of them is yours, here is what sets it off, what clears it, and what to do if you can’t keep going.

Valve uses two clocks, and either one sets it off

Valve’s Early Access documentation says the note appears when either of these is true:

• More than 12 months have passed since a build was assigned to the game’s default branch in Steamworks.
• More than 12 months have passed since the developer posted an update-type event. Valve counts three: Patch Notes, Regular Update and Major Update.

Either one is enough, so staying clear of it takes both. A game that ships a build every month but never posts an update-type event gets the note. So does a game whose only new builds sit on a beta branch.

A plain News post doesn’t count, even though Valve’s own advice on keeping an Early Access page current suggests posting News events. Of 50 games we checked whose note said the developers hadn’t communicated, 5 had posted News in the past year.

When the note appeared in February 2025, some coverage said it was unclear what counted as an update. The wording on the page tells you which clock ran out.

The note says	What it means
“The last update made by the developers was over N months ago”, or “over N years ago”	No build on the default branch in over a year.
“The developers have not communicated any updates for over a year.”	A build within the year, but no update post in over a year.

Valve doesn’t document the wordings, so we checked them against build and event dates for 50 random games with each wording and 50 released games with no note. All 131 with both dates fit Valve’s rule if its 12 months means 360 days, with the event clock starting at launch for games that had never posted an update.

In all 50 we checked, the age in the first wording counted from the older of the last build and the last update post, again counting 30-day months.

Don’t wait for the anniversary. One note appeared when the game’s last build was 363 days old, and three games were flagged 361 and 362 days after they launched, too soon for a 365-day year.

The longer a game sits in Early Access, the likelier the note

Almost no game gets the note in its first year: 5 of 1,994. After four years, 91% have it.

1. Under 1 year (1,994 games)0.3%
2. 1 to 2 years (1,007 games)51.3%
3. 2 to 4 years (1,385 games)76.6%
4. 4 years or more (3,630 games)91.1%

8,016 released games under the Early Access tag in Steam's US store search. Store pages read September 15, 2026.

The note mostly marks long silences. Games showing it had been in Early Access a median of 5.8 years, against 3.4 years for all 8,016. Of the 4,826 notes that give an age, 2,393 said five years or more.

Games players reviewed carry it too, at about half the overall rate: 90 of the 320 Early Access games with at least 1,000 reviews, 28%, and 153 of the 539 with at least 100 reviews and 80% positive.

Almost every flagged game went a year without a public build

4,826 of the 4,889 notes, 98.7%, use the first wording. The other 63 use the second. In the 50 of those we checked, every build we could date was under a year old, and none had an update post among its latest 100 events.

The first wording rarely means a developer who is still posting updates. Of the 50 we checked, none had posted one in the past year, and the newest build among them was 389 days old. When the note shows up, it usually means a year with neither a public build nor an update post.

The event clock is the one that catches developers who are still working. When you submit a build through SteamPipe, a prompt appears suggesting you post patch notes. Taking it is the easiest way to reset both clocks together.

How to clear it honestly

Two steps reset the clocks:

1. Assign a build to the default branch. A beta branch doesn’t count.
2. Post it as an update, not as News. Choose Patch Notes, Regular Update or Major Update. Associate the event with the build, so players can reach the notes from their downloads.

Two more don’t affect the note, but Valve recommends them, and they tell a buyer more than the note can:

3. Refresh the Early Access questionnaire. Valve suggests revisiting the Early Access store page at least once a year, so it reflects the game’s current state and your latest plans for 1.0.
4. Save visibility rounds for real updates. Update visibility rounds work in Early Access, but every game starts with five, shared with full release. Spend all five now and you may have none left after 1.0.

We didn’t measure how quickly the note disappears once both clocks are reset.

When clearing it is the wrong move

A token build and a one-line patch note will reset both clocks. They won’t change what the note exists to tell buyers. Valve asks Early Access developers to set expectations properly and be transparent. If development has stopped, a note that says so is fairer to the next buyer than a patch that hides it.

Rushing to 1.0 to escape the note is worse. Steam treats leaving Early Access like a first full release: the game gets full launch visibility, and wishlisters get an email. A game can’t go back to Early Access afterwards, so you only get that launch once.

Nor is a 1.0 a reliable rescue. In GameDiscoverCo’s estimates for 225 games that left Early Access in 2025 after selling more than 5,000 copies there, leaving out extreme outliers, 20% did better in their first 30 days at 1.0 than in their first 30 days of Early Access. Spend that launch on a game that is finished.

If you can’t keep going

Nobody launches into Early Access planning to stall. Money runs out, a job starts, a team moves on. The note describes the development, not the game.

Valve lists two options for a game that won’t reach 1.0, and you contact Valve for either. The third is yours.

• Leave Early Access without a launch. If the game is playable and well received, Valve can keep it on the store and remove its Early Access tag and questionnaire, without launch visibility. The change is permanent, and Valve asks you to tell your community.
• Retire it from Steam. Players keep it in their libraries and can still download, install and launch it. Valve won’t republish it, and in some cases, such as when promised content isn’t delivered, it may offer refunds beyond the normal policy.
• Hand it to someone who will keep it going. A Steam game’s reviews, wishlists and players stay with it when it changes hands. Look for partners who fund what comes next. Strike Two is one, and our FAQ says Early Access games players loved count, so weigh this with that in mind.

How we counted

On September 15, 2026, we read the store page of each of the 13,900 games Steam’s US store search returned for the Early Access tag (it reported 13,905), and recorded whether it showed the Early Access section and the note. Steam’s review endpoint then gave each Early Access game’s total reviews in all languages, key activations included.

A game counts as in Early Access if its page showed the Early Access section and a release date, to the day, on or before the day we read it. That left 8,016. Another 3,421 pages had the section but a date like “Coming soon”, “Q4 2026” or just “2026”, and none showed the note. 2,463 didn’t show the section.

For the check, we drew 50 games at random with each wording and 50 released games with no note. api.steamcmd.net, a public mirror of Steam’s app data, gave when each last had a build on its default branch. The store’s events feed gave its latest 100 events, where we identified update-type and News posts by type codes Valve doesn’t document.

Build dates couldn’t be read for 18 of the 50 “not communicated” games and 1 of the 50 with no note. That game lists no builds at all in Steam’s app data, and it showed no note despite a last update post over five years old. It is the one sampled game we can’t square with Valve’s rule.

The limits are real. An Early Access game without the tag isn’t in the search, and neither are delisted games or games the US store doesn’t show. Reviews were read in the 35 minutes after the pages.

This is one day’s snapshot. The reading of each wording comes from our sample, not from Valve. We didn’t measure what the note does to sales.