itch.io "just deleted a couple terabytes of AI slop" draws 168,000 likes; daily new game pages doubled in three months

Indie game marketplace itch.io posted on X on Nov. 2, "Just deleted a couple terabytes of ai slop." The post passed 168,000 likes and 2.9 million views.

Kotaku reported that itch.io confirmed one user's bulk upload of near-identical AI games, which filled almost a full page of listings, broke its guidelines and was removed from search indexing. It gave no count of games or accounts. On Bluesky itch.io posted a graph showing daily game-page creation roughly doubled from just over 3,000 on Aug. 3 to above 6,000 on Oct. 30, while downloads and purchases did not rise similarly. Asked why, it replied "Take a guess," and said the rise is driven by first-time uploaders, not bulk uploaders like this one.

It is not a new rule. Destructoid quoted itch.io: "we have had an AI spam clause in our quality guidelines for over two years." The guidelines treat projects made by AI with minimal human intervention, and multiple iterations of essentially the same content, as spam that may be removed from browse and search. AI use must be disclosed and tagged; disclosure now extends to physical games, books, comics and soundtracks, and search filters were added.

Developers asked where the line is. One user said he knows no developer who does not use Claude or Codex to write code (820 likes); itch.io answered with a link to its guideline, "don't be a spammer" (13,000 likes). Kotaku said some want a full ban while some programmers accept AI in code but not in art. A Reddit user's tally reported by Destructoid found 49.9% of Steam's October releases carried an AI-use disclosure, up from 1.7% in January 2024.