Industry News May 5 Fntastic delays The Day Before, most wishlisted game on Steam, and switches to Unreal Engine 5 The Day Before, which is now the most wishlisted title on Steam, has been delayed by developer Fntastic. The studio decided to switch the upcoming game to Unreal Engine 5.
Industry News April 29 The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe sells over 100k copies in 24 hours The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has received an overwhelmingly positive reception from fans, selling over 100k copies on Steam in the first 24 hours since its launch.
Marketing April 22 Roguelike deckbuilders beat all indie genres on Steam in terms of sales, but only 99 such games released since 2019 Game marketing consultant Chris Zukowski has analyzed genres of indie games on Steam. It turned out that titles with NSFW content is a tag with the most number of releases, but roguelike deckbuilders sell the best on average.
Industry News April 21 Valve resumes payments to Russian and Ukrainian devs following suspension Valve has come up with a solution to resume payments to Steam developers based in Ukraine and Russia following the suspension last month.
Industry News April 14 Halo Infinite’s concurrent player count on Steam falls below The Master Chief Collection Halo Infinite has lost 97% of its peak audience on Steam since its launch, currently peaking at less than 8k concurrent players on Steam. It is less than the number of The Master Chief Collection players.
Marketing March 25 Casual players tend to write shorter reviews and own less games on Steam on average Is there any correlation between the type of audience that plays a certain game and the word length of Steam reviews? GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless has highlighted this connection by comparing four games of different categories.
Industry News March 18 Devs demand answers from Valve as Steam stops sending payments not only to Russia but Ukraine as well Steam has stopped sending payments to Russia and Belarus. The restriction, however, also applies to Ukraine, which made local indie developers angry.
Industry News March 15 World War 3 sees more than 5 times growth of peak concurrent player count on Steam Multiplayer shooter World War 3 had a spike in popularity over the last week and a half, with its peak concurrent player count growing by 5.5 times.
Industry News March 14 Steam has highest MAU among game platforms, outshining EGS by almost two times in 2021 Steam has been increasing its user base with each year, leaving all its rivals behind. As of 2021, it has the highest MAU among other video games platforms, including the ones of Sony, Microsoft, and Epic Games.
Industry News March 9 Steam welcomed over 30 million new purchasers in 2021, with players spending 4.3 million years on platform Valve has shared Steam’s results for 2021, which were successful even compared to rapid growth in 2020. The platform’s user base, spending, and playtime increased year-over-year.
Industry News February 25 Elden Ring becomes 7th most played game in Steam’s history despite getting mixed reviews from players Elden Ring has already peaked at more than 700k concurrent players on Steam in the first hours since its launch. FromSoftware’s latest game, however, received a lot of negative reviews from players due to its technical issues.
Industry News February 17 Total War: Warhammer III peaks at over 140K concurrent players but upsets core fans in China Creative Assembly has launched Total War: Warhammer III to mixed reviews on Steam despite already peaking at more than 140K concurrent players. It looks like the majority of negative comments are coming from Chinese gamers.
Industry News February 10 Battlefield 2042’ concurrent player count drops to less than 4K players, down 96% from its all-time peak Battlefield 2042 continues to lose its audience. On February 9, the game peaked at only 3705 concurrent players on Steam, which is an all-time low for DICE’s latest online shooter.
Marketing February 9 Announcing game too early on Steam might cause trouble, especially if it looks unpolished When is the best time to announce a game on Steam? Indie developer Aaron San Filippo has tried to answer this question and explain why presenting your project to the public too early might be a bad idea.
Featured January 28 Devs discuss whether world “needs” myriads of indie games from creative and economic perspective Developers have gotten into a heated discussion about thousands of indie games launching on Steam every year. While some think that these projects shouldn’t exist because they have zero value, the rest are convinced that everyone should have the right to express themselves through any art form.
Marketing January 27 Why getting first 10 reviews on Steam is essential for game’s visibility Game marketing consultant Chris Zukowski has explained why the first 10 reviews a game gets on Steam are the most important. This is a key number, which can significantly boost a project’s visibility.
Industry News January 24 More than 11k games released on Steam in 2021, with 30 titles coming out daily Data platform VG Insights has shared a new report on the number of new games released on Steam in 2021. The store set a new record, thanks to three dozen titles launched there every single day.
Industry News January 18 How paid beta, success bias, and change of concept led to Spire of Sorcery selling only 1500 copies at launch Spire of Sorcery, the latest game by Gremlins, Inc. maker Charlie Oscar, had a lackluster launch, with only 1500 copies being sold during launch week. The studio head Sergei Klimov has analyzed what went wrong and shared some advice with other devs.
Marketing January 17 Why indie platformer Neko Ghost, Jump! only sold 100 units at launch despite getting 17,000 wishlists Neko Ghost, Jump! has generated more than 17,000 wishlists on Steam. The game, however, only sold 100 copies on day 1. Developer Victor Burgos tried to figure out the reasons for the failed launch.
Marketing January 11 Developer Benjamin Kobe recommends against using large gaming subreddits to promote small indie titles Developer Benjamin Kobe, founder of Austin, Texas-based indie studio Clutch Dynamics, shared his experience of promoting his game Boris the Sloth on Reddit. He suggests staying away from large gaming and gamedev subreddits for UA purposes.