How long did they say Early Access would take, and how long has it been? · 2,114 in Early Access · 2,662 promises read · 908 announced, not started
| Year | Games | In Early Access now | Graduated | Median time in EA | Promise read | Overdue | Promise kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1,063 | 1,048 | 151% | 1 month | 97692% | 32of 885 parsed | — |
| 2025 | 387 | 387 | 00% | 13 months | 33787% | 126of 293 parsed | — |
| 2024 | 188 | 188 | 00% | 2 years 1 month | 16688% | 98of 134 parsed | — |
| 2023 | 108 | 108 | 00% | 3 years 2 months | 9487% | 54of 74 parsed | — |
| 2022 | 76 | 76 | 00% | 4 years 2 months | 6788% | 43of 51 parsed | — |
| 2021 | 50 | 50 | 00% | 5 years 1 month | 4182% | 23of 31 parsed | — |
| 2020 | 44 | 44 | 00% | 6 years 1 month | 3989% | 19of 23 parsed | — |
| 2019 | 39 | 39 | 00% | 7 years 3 months | 39100% | 19of 22 parsed | — |
| 2018 | 21 | 21 | 00% | 8 years 1 month | 1990% | 10of 11 parsed | — |
| 2017 | 19 | 19 | 00% | 9 years 3 months | 1895% | 8of 10 parsed | — |
| Game | Promise | Promised | Elapsed | Clock | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colony SurvivalColony Survival | This is difficult to say. We never expected to get all the support that has allowed us to keep improving the game for seven years. We might leave Early Access in the next 12-18 months, or we might keep working on major updates.read 5 Sep 2026 | 12–18 months | 9 years 3 months | 616% | Overdueby 7 years 9 months | |
| Dyson Sphere ProgramDyson Sphere Program | Our plans are for this EA stage to be about 1 year long. But that is not written in stone: we will be open to our players’ feedback and ideas from the beginning, so that period can be expanded to meet their expectations until the game is ready for its full release.read 6 Sep 2026 | about 12 months | 5 years 8 months | 564% | Overdueby 4 years 8 months | |
| SprocketSprocket | About 24 months. For perspective, Sprocket will have been in development for 15 months as of August 2021.read 11 Sep 2026 | 15–24 months | 5 years 1 month | 252% | Overdueby 3 years 1 month | |
| Night Club SimulatorNight Club Simulator | We anticipate the Early Access phase to last approximately 3 to 6 months. During this time, the game will receive regular updates with new content, improvements, and tweaks based on player feedback.read 7 Sep 2026 | 3–6 months | 13 months | 224% | Overdueby 7 months | |
| TaleSpireTaleSpire | Our initial estimates were a bit ambitious. After being in Early Access for a while now, we foresee at least a couple of years post initial Early Access Release. This will give us ample time to deliver on our roadmap from the Kickstarter as well as give time for player feedback to shape the game throughout the early access period.read 7 Sep 2026 | 24–36 months | 5 years 5 months | 180% | Overdueby 2 years 5 months | |
| Small SpacesSmall Spaces | 8-9 months.read 5 Sep 2026 | 8–9 months | 16 months | 172% | Overdueby 7 months | |
| ApoikiaApoikia | Our current target is around 2–4 months, but the timeline may change depending on feedback, testing outcomes, and the time needed to polish remaining core systems.read 7 Sep 2026 | 2–4 months | 7 months | 163% | Overdueby 3 months | |
| REKAREKA | Although we can’t give a definitive date, we anticipate that REKA will be in Early Access development for the remainder of 2024, with 1.0 launching in 2025.read 11 Sep 2026 | 16 monthsuntil 31 Dec 2025 | 2 years | 150% | Overdueby 8 months | |
| Bunker Constructor SimulatorBunker Constructor Simulator | At this moment, the release is planned about six months after the start of early access. However, this deadline can be changed if there are many interesting requests from the players. Any release date changes will be posted on the game's page.read 6 Sep 2026 | about 6 months | 9 months | 147% | Overdueby 3 months | |
| AviassemblyAviassembly | Although it's difficult to provide an exact timeline at this stage, my current plan is to exit early access sometime between late 2025 and early 2026.read 5 Sep 2026 | 12 monthsuntil 31 Mar 2026 | 17 months | 142% | Overdueby 5 months | |
| FlyoutFlyout | Flyout will be ready to exit Early Access once all current and planned editor and sandbox features have been implemented and polished and the game has been made more accessible to a wider audience. This will take approximately two years.read 5 Sep 2026 | about 2 years | 2 years 10 months | 141% | Overdueby 10 months | |
| ArcheanArchean | 1-2 yearsread 10 Sep 2026 | 12–24 months | 2 years 4 months | 116% | Overdueby 4 months | |
| Automation - The Car Company Tycoon GameAutomation - The Car Company Tycoon Game | Automation continues to be in active development, and will continue to be in development for the foreseeable future. Once the three-part Supercharger Update suite is completed, tentatively planned for early-to-mid 2026, Automation’s Car and Engine Designers will be considered feature complete according to our original plans, and development will re-focus on Campaign Mode.read 5 Sep 2026 | 11 years 4 monthsuntil 30 Jun 2026 | 11 years 6 months | 101% | Overdueby 2 months |
A game is in Early Access when the store lists it among its genres; the clock starts on the day the ledger saw it enter or, for a game that launched into Early Access, on the release date the store prints. The promise is the developer’s own questionnaire answer, kept word for word; only ranges and single figures are compared, open answers are listed as open, and answers the parser could not read say so. Graduations are recorded from 3 Sep 2026, so earlier years undercount them. A game whose questionnaire has not been read yet says “not read yet” under No promise (how). Data by SteamPeaks.com.