Where to publish your adult game

The short version

There is no single best home for an adult game. Most developers use two or three places at once: one where players find and play the game, one where fans pay, and a store for the finished release. The table below compares the main options. Every fact about another platform links to its source at the bottom of this page, and everything was checked on 26 September 2026.

Platform	What it is for	Adult content	What it costs you	How players get the game
itch.io	Open indie store	Allowed if marked; banned themes for paid work	You set itch.io's cut, 10% by default	Download or HTML5 in the browser
Steam	Big PC store	Allowed if age-gated and labeled, but rule 15 applies	$100 per app, 30% cut up to $10M	Download
Patreon	Monthly fan support	Allowed on 18+ pages, explicit posts behind the paywall	10% for pages launched after 4 August 2025, plus processing	Files or links you post for members
SubscribeStar	Monthly fan support	NSFW creators use SubscribeStar.adult	10% service fee plus 8.0% + $0.40 per transaction on the .adult site	Files or links you post for subscribers
Nutaku	Adult game publisher and portal	Adult only	Agreed per deal, not public	Browser, PC and mobile
DLsite	Japanese doujin store	Adult and all-ages	Check DLsite's creator terms	Download
naughty.games	Free adult HTML5 game portal	Adult only, every character 18+	Free, no revenue share	Browser, phone and desktop

itch.io

itch.io is the default first stop for indie games. You decide how much of each sale goes to itch.io, from 0% to 100%, and the default is 10%. It can host an HTML5 build that plays in the browser, up to 500 MB unpacked and 1,000 files, next to your downloads.

Adult content is allowed, but pages with strong adult themes must be marked, and only players who opt in see them. If you charge money, itch.io lists themes it cannot support in a sale because of card network rules: non-consent, underage or "barely legal" themes, incest or pseudo-incest, bestiality, rape or coercion, and a few more. That list is about sales. Free adult pages still follow itch.io's general content rules.

Steam

Steam is where the biggest PC audience buys games. You pay a $100 Steam Direct fee per game, which you get back once the game earns $1,000. Valve's cut starts at 30% and drops to 25% after $10 million and 20% after $50 million.

Steam accepts adult games that are labeled and age-gated through its content survey, which has an "Adult Only Sexual Content" category that Valve reviews before release. Since July 2025 its onboarding rules also ban "content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam's payment processors and related card networks and banks", naming "certain kinds of adult only content". The rule does not publish a list of themes, so read it as a real risk if your game has taboo content.

Patreon

Patreon is not a store. Fans pay you monthly, and you post builds, previews and devlogs for them. New pages launched after 4 August 2025 pay a 10% platform fee plus payment processing fees.

Adult/18+ pages are allowed. Nudity and explicit work must sit behind the paywall, and your public page, banner and free posts must stay clean. Adult creators must verify they are 18 or older. Illustrated characters must be "unmistakably" adults, and sexualized incest and "consensual non-consent" are banned in any work. Patreon finished a round of policy updates in March 2026, so read the current guidelines before you launch.

SubscribeStar

SubscribeStar works like Patreon. The main site charges a 5% platform fee for regular content plus processing fees. NSFW creators use SubscribeStar.adult, which says it is built for "18+ game developers" and shows a 10% service fee and a transaction fee of 8.0% + $0.40. Its prohibited content policy bans bestiality, rape, incest and deepfakes.

Nutaku

Nutaku is an adult game platform with browser, PC and mobile games. Its publishing arm offers funding, marketing, distribution and production support, mostly for free-to-play games, and says it has released more than 100 titles. You contact its publishing team rather than upload a build, and it does not publish its revenue terms. It suits free-to-play games with in-game purchases best.

DLsite

DLsite is a large Japanese store for doujin works, adult and all-ages, including games, and its site runs in 14 languages. It has had its own payment trouble: Visa, Mastercard and American Express payments were suspended in April 2024, and as of December 2025 JCB was the only card brand it accepted. Its owner, viviON, added a direct bank payment option in October 2025 and announced its own JCB card for January 2026. It is a strong choice if Japanese players are your audience.

Where the 2025 payment-processor crackdown stands

In July 2025 payment processors pushed Steam and itch.io to pull adult games. Here is what happened and where it stands on 26 September 2026:

1. 16 July 2025: Steam added the payment-processor rule. More than 150 adult games and DLC were delisted within days, with words like incest, rape and slave in their titles.
2. 24 July 2025: itch.io removed all adult NSFW content from browse and search and suspended Stripe card payments for 18+ content "for the foreseeable future".
3. 31 July 2025: itch.io put free adult content back in search and said paid adult content would return "slowly".
4. August 2025: Valve said payment processors cited a Mastercard rule. Mastercard said it had not evaluated any game. Then PayPal stopped working on Steam for all but six currencies, which Valve linked to the same dispute.
5. Today: rule 15 is still in Steam's onboarding rules. itch.io has posted no policy update on NSFW content since 31 July 2025, but its paid NSFW browse page does list paid adult games again. Check which payment methods your own page can offer before you count on sales there.

What it means for you: before you charge money anywhere, check your themes against each platform's banned list. Do not put your whole income on one store. Keep a free, playable version somewhere players can always reach it, and point it at the places where you earn.

naughty.games

naughty.games is a free portal for adult HTML5 games. Players press Play and the game runs in the browser on phone or desktop, with no download and no sign-up. You upload an HTML5 zip with index.html at the top level, up to 250 MB unpacked and 2,000 files, or give us an iframe URL. Review usually happens within 2 working days.

It is free, takes no revenue share, and is non-exclusive, so keep your itch.io, Steam and Patreon pages. Your game page carries your Patreon, SubscribeStar, Ko-fi, Steam and itch links, and you keep 100% of what they earn. Builds may not include third-party ads or install service workers. We promote games by hand on average time played, D1 retention and conversion, the share of players who play for more than a minute.

Which should you pick?

• Adult VN funded by monthly supporters: run Patreon or SubscribeStar for income, put a free public build on naughty.games and itch.io, and link both back to your support page.
• HTML5 prototype or jam game: put it on naughty.games and itch.io, both free, both in the browser, and watch which one players stay in.
• Finished paid PC release: Steam, if your game fits its content survey and rule 15. Keep an itch.io page as a second store and a browser demo to send players to your store pages.
• Free-to-play game with in-game purchases: pitch Nutaku Publishing.
• Game aimed at Japanese players: DLsite.

For the money side, read how to make money from an adult game and payment processor rules for adult games. To get a build into the browser, start with the Ren'Py, Unity or Godot guide. When your build is ready, publish it on naughty.games.