Valve sends annual chocolates to Steam devs who earn roughly $800,000, and before Peak the folks at Aggro Crab got pretty sick of looking across the hall to see the Slay the Spire team open Gaben candy every year

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Valve sends annual chocolates to Steam devs who earn roughly $800,000, and before Peak the folks at Aggro Crab got pretty sick of looking across the hall to see the Slay the Spire team open Gaben candy every year News By Dustin Bailey published 9 January 2026

"Every year they got f***ing chocolates that we didn't"

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There's a deep, dark, and milky secret about a handful of highly successful developers on Steam: Valve likes to send them chocolates at the end of the year. Rumors about Valve's mysterious "chocolate tier" have become more prominent over the past year or so, and it very much seems that those whispers are true.

Perhaps the most detailed breakdown of chocolate tier out there comes courtesy of games marketing consultant Chris Zukowski, who published a video in December laying out the basics as he understands them from speaking with developers over the years. According to Zukowski, Valve will send out a high-end box of chocolate to developers who meet a threshold of roughly $800,000 in annual revenue.

As Zukowski understands, Valve sends out a chocolate box worth roughly $150 to developers meeting that $800,000 threshold in annual revenue. For the small batch of developers reaching $2 million in annual revenue, they get a $250 chocolate box – specifically this one from Fran's. $250 is a pretty small gesture in light of that kind of revenue, but it's a nice way for Valve to say congrats and happy holidays to Steam's most successful devs.

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I came to learn of chocolate tier through a Game File interview (paid article link) with the Peak devs – the same one where we learned that $8 is five bucks. Peak is a collaboration between the devs at Landfall Games and Aggro Crab. The latter studio happens to share office space in Seattle with Mega Crit, the dev behind the wildly successful roguelike deckbuilder Slay the Spire, sometimes to their chagrin.

"Every year they got fucking chocolates that we didn't," Aggro Crab co-founder Nick Kaman jokes in that interview. He was apparently pretty sure that the studio's goofy 2024 Soulslike, Another Crab's Treasure, had met the necessary milestone for the chocolate tier, but no chocolate had arrived. He says he emailed Valve about the no-show candy box and got an apology.

This past year, with over 11 million copies of Peak sold, Aggro Crab did finally get its chocolate. Producer Joanna Lin tells Game File that the milk chocolate salted caramel pieces are especially good.

Peak put friendslop on the map in 2025, but neither of its 2 studios expected it to blow up: "We were ready to hit the launch button and go into vacation mode."

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. CATEGORIES PC Gaming Platforms Dustin BaileySocial Links NavigationStaff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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Logout Read more A few hundred employees working on "self-directed projects" has made Valve one of the world's most profitable-per-person companies, on track to top $17 billion this year and shame the likes of Google and Meta    Baldur's Gate 3 publishing lead says Valve defeated Meta and Apple in VR by building "incredible spaces for actual geniuses" instead of worrying about non-existent shareholders    Peak is $8 because the devs wanted you to see a $5 price tag and, hey, "eight bucks is still five bucks"    Over 5,000 games released on Steam this year didn't make enough money to recover the $100 fee to put a game on Valve's store, research estimates    Valve accidentally smothers indie game with 138,000 wishlists by not telling anyone it existed, then apologizes to studio by accidentally revealing Steam Machine on the same day of promotion    Steam expert hails PC gaming "golden age" of rough-but-fun games that devs can make quickly and players love, from Peak to Megabonk: "Steam players want fun first"    Latest in Co-op Games Peak is $8 because the devs wanted you to see a $5 price tag and, hey, "eight bucks is still five bucks"    Indie devs behind adorable co-op horror game say a "direct copy" with "AI-generated assets" is on the PlayStation Store    Peak lead knows you're a friendslop "hater," but remember "these games aren't trying to be Game of the Year"    Peak is "not going to be a forever game," but the devs don't want to "leave anything on the table" either    Calling games like Peak and REPO friendslop "devalues" the skill of the developer, industry investor says    Peak devs have been "running on pure adrenaline" for months, so "the frequency of patches and updates will be slower"    Latest in News Valve sends annual chocolates to Steam devs who earn roughly $800,000, and the Peak devs are happy to finally get theirs    The Fantastic Four finally arrive in the MCU in Wakanda-centric Avengers: Doomsday teaser    Despite creating all-timer hits Kirby and Super Smash Bros, Masahiro Sakurai still doesn't think he's a "hit maker"    Larian writer laments Wyll, Baldur's Gate 3's unlucky Warlock, who played a much bigger role in stories that got cut    Before winning TGA indie awards, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead said "we'd rather this category went to a smaller studio"    Nintendo of America accused of infringing unionization rights alongside contracting firm in new complaint    GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS

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