How long did they say Early Access would take, and how long has it been? · 1,453 in Early Access · 1,414 promises read · 505 announced, not started
| Year | Games | In Early Access now | Graduated | Median time in EA | Promise read | Overdue | Promise kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 816 | 811 | 51% | 4 weeks | 67583% | 14of 616 parsed | — |
| 2025 | 249 | 249 | 00% | 13 months | 18474% | 62of 150 parsed | — |
| 2024 | 131 | 131 | 00% | 2 years | 10681% | 55of 82 parsed | — |
| 2023 | 74 | 74 | 00% |
| 3 years 2 months |
| 5777% |
| 31of 44 parsed |
| — |
| 2022 | 52 | 52 | 00% | 4 years 2 months | 4077% | 25of 31 parsed | — |
| 2021 | 35 | 35 | 00% | 5 years 3 months | 2366% | 13of 17 parsed | — |
| 2020 | 35 | 35 | 00% | 6 years 1 month | 3086% | 14of 18 parsed | — |
| 2019 | 20 | 20 | 00% | 6 years 11 months | 1995% | 7of 10 parsed | — |
| 2018 | 15 | 15 | 00% | 8 years 1 month | 1387% | 6of 7 parsed | — |
| 2017 | 11 | 11 | 00% | 9 years 3 months | 982% | 5of 6 parsed | — |
| Game | Promise | Promised | Elapsed | Clock | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ExanimaExanima | Around six to nine months, give or take three months! Honestly, we can't provide an exact timeframe as there are many factors involved, some of which are beyond our control. These include feedback from a wider community and, ultimately, Exanima's success which will determine our budget going forward.read 5 Sep 2026 | 6–9 months | 11 years 4 months | 1515% | Overdueby 10 years 7 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.