I recently heard that itch.io is being researched by marketing moguls like the acclaimed Chris Zukowski, who wrote an article reviewing itch.io's greatest successes under the following article: https://howtomarketagame.com/2025/05/22/more-games-that-made-the-itch-io-to-stea...

However, I have some doubts and mixed feelings about what it explains, starting with the question that gives the title its name:

1. Can itch.io success translate to Steam success?

It depends on what kind of game has making, how lucky it is, or how professional it looks. 

There are games that are successful on itch.io but were failures on Steam, because the audiences of Steam and itch.io are quite different. What's more, itch.io's game saturation is much bigger than Steam, with the only advantage being that most of them are free to play.

2.  If you want to “get player feedback” do it on itch, not Steam Early Access.

Of course, it's so basic that even I've started developing projects from here to get feedback. However, there are cases of games that started as prototypes on itch.io and arrived as EA on Steam. 

His Die in the Dungeons example is one of them. Although it started with its classic version (Origins for Steam), ots most polished and advanced version on Steam was launched as Early Access, but one that works like Steam Early Access, after all the experience gained and learned in its years on itch.io.

Finally, I leave you with the following question: Would you abandon itch.io just to put games on Steam?

Personally, I wouldn't do it, especially if it's a game that certainly won't work on Steam alone. It's better to have Steam or another platform as a complement to give it greater visibility. And if itch.io ever disappears, I would look for another platform with similar features for games that are primarily free.

I leave it to you to decide your opinions on this case.

Since I am on Steam and on Itch and I know games that are here and there, I do have opinions about that.

In general the audience and the expectance of the audience is just different. There is of course overlap in the audience, your's truly being exhibit a. But I would approach the same game differently on both platforms.

For this discussion, I think the main point is, that Steam does promote your game on it's platform. They have an incentive to show any sellable game to the most players that might buy it. Itch does not really do that. So analyzing "marketing" in regards to Itch is bound to be futile. There is just no real marketing happening. Not on the platform. If any, it happens elsewhere, and if you happen to be released on Itch and on Steam, of course more people will flock to the bigger platform.

Itch is great for growing a community and getting feedback from players that have the patience to try out fledgling indie games. Steam is great to show your almost finished game to people that might like it.