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- According to new research on Steam, indie titles underperform the average wishlists-to-sales ratio.
- Franchise titles like NBA 2K and EA FC overperform by 5x, as most casual gamers buy them directly.
- Overall, the median conversion rate on Steam was higher than expected.
Steam is the beating heart of the PC gaming ecosystem. Valve’s online platform made over $10 billion in revenue through game sales just last year and hit a new player peak of a whopping 41 million concurrent users this month.
Hence, the digital store is arguably the best case study to define trends in the gaming world, and according to new research, franchise titles are ruling Steam.
Why it matters: Casual gamers purchasing franchise titles instead of buying unique indie games they have wishlisted highlights an underlying issue in the industry.
According to GameDiscoverCo, unique indie titles tend to underperform when it comes to translating wishlists to sales, while franchise titles like NBA 2K exceed expectations.
The study revealed that titles that go viral outdo their wishlists by as much as 30x, with games like R.E.P.O. and PEAK almost a million copies with only 30K-50K wishlists.
On the other hand, indie titles with a unique premise do get many wishlists but don’t get many sales, as the player intrigue is not enough to purchase the title due to a lack of wider appeal.
Even though AA/indie titles like Clair Obscur and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 made it to the top 20, most other indie titles underperformed compared to the median.
More interestingly, sequels always tend to underperform in the wishlists-to-sales conversion, as players have higher expectations, and older games also get discounted. Furthermore, the median ratio hasn’t dropped in 5 years, but it hasn’t seen a sharp increase either, as there are too many games to buy.
Unsurprisingly, reviews also play a big part in this metric, with games scoring lower than 70% ending up in the bottom 20 of the research list.
Do you buy most of the games you wishlist on Steam? Tell us in the comments below or head to the Tech4Gamers forum for discussion.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devoutly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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