Porn Games on Steam: Types, Ways of Playing, and Settings

What is it about?

Pornographic games have mostly been sold outside of mainstream platforms in the past. That changed in 2018, when Steam updated its policy to allow uncensored pornographic games. We identified 452 games or downloadable content (DLC) on Steam that were tagged as having mature and sexual content, and we closely analyzed 40 of them. About 17.5% of these games featured only nudity, while the rest included graphic sex scenes. Most were visual novels or adventure games. The most common settings were drama and fantasy. Only two of the games focused on male-male sex; the rest showed heterosexual sex or same-sex scenes framed in a heterosexual way. In nearly all the games, the sexual content or nudity was connected to how players progressed through the game.

Featured Image

Photo by Senad Palic on Unsplash

Photo by Senad Palic on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is an exploratory investigation aimed at mapping and understanding pornographic games available on Steam. The sale of such games on mainstream platforms like Steam is a relatively recent development, following policy changes in 2018 that allowed uncensored adult content. Despite their growing visibility, there is still very limited academic research on pornographic games in general—and particularly on those distributed through Steam.