Steam Workshop content creators have earned over $57 million since Valve corporation launched the user-generated marketplace in 2011, and now Valve is expanding the Workshop to two non-Valve games for the first time ever.

Steam Workshop began in 2011 as a way for talented and creative users to earn money by designing and sellinging their own in-game items for Valve titles like Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. Users earned money while practicing their craft, players got an abundant marketplace with unique items, and Valve received a wide range of content at little cost to themselves.

The result was an incredibly successful program that to date has earned content creators over $57 million in sales of items such as custom weapons, vanity items and, of course, lots and lots of hats. Steam Workshop content has been created by over 1,500 different users across 75 countries.

“When we launched the Workshop late in 2011, we expected that it would grow, but not that it would grow this much, this quickly,” wrote Valve’s Alden Kroll.

“The limitation of paid, revenue-generating Workshops to Valve content has been an unfortunate consequence of the sheer number of challenges required in order to scale to a global audience of creators and players. Today we’re happy to announce that after a ton of work, the first curated Workshops for non-Valve games have opened: Dungeon Defenders: Eternity and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.”

While these are the first non-Valve games on the Workshop for which content creators can earn revenue, games such as Skyrim  have free content available on Steam Workshop.

Kroll notes that Valve expects more games to be added to the Workshop “over the coming weeks and months.”

New tools for creators

In addition to the new games added to Steam Workshop, Valve is also introducing new tools to help content creators keep better track of the items they have added to the marketplace.

The new metrics tools will allow content creators to view real-time sales information of the items they have added to the Workshop, as well as  per-item revenue breakdowns and historical statements.

If you are a  Steam Workshop content creator, you can access the new tools under the “View Your Revenue” link on the My Workshop Files page.