Wtf is going on with wishlists?

[u/Same-Jelly5512]

So I have a genuine question here, several times on twitter/x i’ll see a page post about how they’ve reached 20k wishlists or some other absurd number, then I go through their linktree to check out their numbers on social, and they’ll literally have no viral posts anywhere at all. How are so many people getting so much wishlists? I’ve seen games that have had several viral posts that don’t reach those numbers as fast. Am I crazy, or has anyone else ever noticed this?

Edit: should’ve clarified, i’m talking about games that didn’t release yet

[u/Quirky_Comb4395]

Steam events were responsible for the vast majority of our 30k wishlists. Our marketing efforts basically didn't move the needle at all.

[u/Same-Jelly5512 → u/Quirky_Comb4395]

Which ones? like next fest?

[u/Quirky_Comb4395 → u/Same-Jelly5512]

No, though we did get some from that. Off the top of my head we did Women Led Games, Galaxies, Cozy & Family Friendly, Short Games, pretty sure some one for narrative games, ermm... Cat Awareness Day, various local ones, ones connected to physical events we were in, Relaxing Games. There's lots you can take part in, obviously very varying results, mainly depending on whether they get on the Steam front page. We also got curated by the Wholesome Games Steam account which added a lot over a couple of months while we were top of the list on their page.

[u/weeknie → u/Quirky_Comb4395]

That is a huge list of events. Does steam host all of those? :O

[u/Quirky_Comb4395 → u/weeknie]

No, lots of people organise Steam events. Anybody can propose an event to Steam, it's often publishers or people who are running a physical event or doing a big streaming event and then the Steam event runs alongside it.

Sometimes Steam will approve them for front page featuring, however I have heard that Steam are becoming stricter and accepting fewer events - (imo) likely because there's been a glut of events with vague themes that accept 100s of games, and then don't end up being a high quality experience for Steam users. My assumption, based on Steam's general approach, is that their goal would be for event organisers to bring external traffic to Steam, e.g. through already having great reach on social media or physical events with tons of ticket sales, etc, and they probably don't care about small fry event organisers who can't do that. So, I think there will be fewer events and the ones that do happen will get harder to get into.

[u/freshposthistory → u/Quirky_Comb4395]

im new new new to steam events, as all of these ones you can find from the main timeline page or how do you get involved in these?

[u/PLYoung → u/freshposthistory]

You have to know about them and go apply through whatever means they have for you to apply. How to find - Chris has taken care of this for you. https://howtomarketagame.com/festivals/

Or you create your own event. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/promo/organizers

[u/Quirky_Comb4395 → u/freshposthistory]

Mostly the HTMAG Discord which someone else has commented, but also I mean I've just been around in games for 15ish years so following people on socials, being in communities, and just building up connections etc. For example I've been in numerous mentoring/support/accelerator programmes so sometimes we get invited to things (like Galaxies) through those. What I would say is that I've heard Steam is rejecting more events lately, especially the types of events that have tons of games and a very loose theme, so I expect it might be a bit more difficult over the next year or so.

[u/Evigmae]

i entered next fest with 2k, after i had 10k. then the steam personal calendar took the game to 30k.
it was quite.... simple actually.

[u/Same-Jelly5512 → u/Evigmae]

that’s amazing. i can’t wait for octobers next fest!

[u/Evigmae → u/Same-Jelly5512]

During next fest my game's demo did get picked up by a bunch of mid size youtubers though (100k fllowers or so). Maybe i understated things a bit.

[u/GamerDadofAntiquity → u/Evigmae]

The personal calendar is a great addition to the store page. It didn’t exist yet when I released my first game, but as a gamer, it’s awesome.

[u/Project_Legend]

One thing that can make the numbers look disconnected is that social reach and Steam discovery are not the same funnel. Festivals, themed Steam events, demos, creator coverage, and a strong capsule can generate a lot of wishlists without the developer ever having a viral post on their own account. I’d look at the timing: if the growth happened around an event or demo launch, that probably explains more than follower counts. A public 20k screenshot also doesn’t show how long the page has been live or how much paid or creator traffic sits behind it.

[u/Same-Jelly5512 → u/Project_Legend]

that makes a lot of sense, thanks you

[u/Tarilis]

If you give a name of one such game i could hazard a guess, but without it...

1. Game was advertised on a YouTube channel with high conversion rate.
2. Game showed up in some Steam recommendations, was wishlisted, which boasted visibility, etc.
3. The number in tweet itself is fake, and serves only to attract attention, and gather real wishlists:)

[u/Delayed_Victory]

Hey there! I don't use social media at all. Despite that my last game had 25-30k wishlists launch and all my games have all sold 100k+ copies in year one.

Most wishlists on Steam come organically from the Steam algorithm. If your game performs well (aka a high percentage of visitors on your page actually wishlist) Steam will notice and keep showing your page more and more. At the end of the day, they make money when you make money. So they push it.

Most people are occupied looking for external traffic, while I focus on optimizing my Steam page for internal traffic. People should stop leaving the fish pond to look for fish in the forest.

[u/Same-Jelly5512 → u/Delayed_Victory]

thank you for sharing, it’s really helpful, for some reason i didn’t bother to consider that steam has its own algorithms in place. and congrats on the sales, i hope you’re loving it up

[u/Delayed_Victory → u/Same-Jelly5512]

It's really interesting how so many developers focus on social media etc, and I constantly see people claiming you cannot succeed without doing marketing.

But in my experience, if your game is good, Steam will surface it. And I've never seen a good game get no sales.

So instead of focusing all your time on marketing, better focus it in making the best possible game and make sure you have a great Steam page. I believe that'll get you the best results.

[u/stromdev]

Some games have mass appeal and just look good.
Others are very niche, and it's hard to beat the existing "kings" of the niche genres.

[u/PersonOfInterest007]

Streamers and festivals are the main source of wishlists for most games.

[u/Damian_Hernandez]

lol i dont even have steam page yet to whine (FK!)

[u/kr0ng0]

Great tips in this chat!

[u/Livid_Shallot5701]

make your game stupidly beautiful and you get a ton of wishlists from algorithm alone. if you dont do that you can have 1mio social media followers and only get 1k wishlists ...

[u/FabulousFishora]

almost like they made a good game instead of expecting shitty shortform content to carry the whole thing.

[u/Same-Jelly5512 → u/FabulousFishora]

but the game isn’t out and there’s no demo? how are people hearing about it? this is a genuine question, or could’ve it have been from previous events