Itch.io deletes terabytes of AI uploads and expands filters
The indie storefront removed bulk AI-generated files, widened disclosure rules, and let shoppers exclude generative AI in browse and search.
Edited by Dot Matrix, Editor-in-Chief
Field note from the shelves small teams still share: itch.io says it has “Just deleted a couple terabytes of AI slop,” and it has given shoppers clearer ways to step around generative AI on the storefront.1
This account rests on PC Gamer’s report of itch.io’s own posts. A few days after Valve said Steam is dealing with AI slop and game cloning, itch.io described a similar squeeze of its own: new game pages created each day have doubled over the past two months, while downloads and purchases have not. On Bluesky, when someone asked why the page count jumped, the storefront replied “take a guess,” with crying and robot smilies.1
Itch.io is not only talking about the volume. Overnight it posted that the bulk files were gone and linked its rules on uploading excessive automatically generated or AI-generated content. Those rules say automated systems must not mass-produce product pages; itch.io treats that as spam and may pull the pages from browse and search. The same guidance covers projects made mostly by algorithms or AI with little human work, randomly generated material with little curated design, and many near-identical AI iterations of the same thing.1
Disclosure is widening with the cleanup. Like Steam, itch.io already required creators to flag generative AI. That requirement, once limited to game assets for about two years, now also applies when someone edits or creates pages in tabletop and physical games, books, comics, and soundtracks.1
Shoppers get matching controls. Itch.io added browsing and search filters so people can exclude some or all generative AI use, including a direct No AI path through the catalog. For readers following the same beat, see our earlier notes on the No AI filter and the doubled daily pages and the bulk deletion work.1
Our read: A storefront built for short experiments and small crews cannot treat endless auto-generated pages as neutral noise; they crowd the same browse lists demos need. Cutting oversized dumps and letting buyers filter by AI use will not settle every tool argument, and the page-count spike may still shift. What to watch next is whether daily new pages cool and whether other indie-facing shops match the filter and disclosure depth without turning discovery into a scavenger hunt.
Footnotes
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