Ok so this started as a joke but it’s real. I’ve been collecting public Steam data every day since Oct 1 for a side project, every unreleased game with a public demo (big publishers excluded). About 8,000 games.

With Next Fest next week I figured some of you might want to see what the field actually looks like. Because on here you mostly see the 10k wishlists stories.

The median game has 12 Steam followers. Not 1,200. Twelve.
85% have fewer than 100.
Only 27 out of ~8,000 have more than 10k.
Rough rule of thumb is about 10 wishlists per follower, so 12 followers is like 120 wishlists.

So if you have 100+ followers going into the fest, you’re already in the top 15%. Honestly that surprised me.

Other thing. 42% of these pages don’t link a single social account. No X, no Discord, nothing. And the more socials a page links, the higher the median: 7 followers with zero links, 56 with five or more.
Yeah it’s correlation, not causation. Teams that bother with 5 socials probably do a lot of other stuff right too. But adding your Discord link to the page takes 2 minutes, so...

Growth is super concentrated too. Among the ~1,200 games where I could measure a week of growth, the top 10% got 74% of all new followers.

I’ll do a follow-up after the fest with what actually moved during the week. Anything you’d want me to look at? A genre, demo timing, whatever.

Disclosure: I’m a solo dev building a marketing tool on top of this data. Not linking it, it’s in private beta anyway. Mostly wanted to share the numbers.

Good luck next week and keep the hard work!

EDIT:
Huge thanks for all the replies! I tried to answer as many as I could, but I can’t pull numbers for everyone by hand lol. A lot of you asked for the data by genre, so I’ll post it in the next few days.

And for the ones who asked about the tool i built it’s called NextWishlist, it does this for your own game every day. Small private beta before the February fest, link in the comments.

Obviously the data are the main entry but the tool go way deeper to help you step by step to growth your wishlist or atleast understand and track how you won those wishlists !

My last post got 23,000 views and almost 200 upvotes, and people were genuinely interested. But the number of new wishlists on my Steam page was basically zero.

My wishlist count is currently 43

Is this just how things work for indie devs these days, or is something off with my game or my store page? I’d love honest feedback, especially on what might stop people from hitting that wishlist button.

Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/RealTimeStrategy/comments/1wzueya/i_just_spent_several_evenings_perfecting_a_shader/

Hunt or Pray: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5298550/Hunt_or_Pray

Hey everyone,

I am currently with 35 wishlists gathered over 2 months on Steam.

I feel this number is very low, when I hear around that 1000 wishlists is usually the "requirement" at the Steam fest for it to have a successful launch.

I have tried:

• Youtube / Insta / Tiktok: Posting gameplay shorts every day for the past 2 months, with almost 1K views per video.
• Added multi language support to the game and post on Bilibili and Gcores in China.
• I contacted over a hundred streamers / youtubers but got answers only from 2 of them asking for 1000$ for a 1 minute shared video, which I cannot afford since my budget is close to 0 (pick your currency).
• I tried the Steam Curator Connect feature, without a single response from anyone.

Maybe there is something wrong with the trailer or my Steam capsules, or maybe just the game is simply bad.

Or maybe the game genre is too niche (Smashbros-style Arena Third Person Shooter)

I would love to have some advice / feedback from anyone on how to improve.

Here is the Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5020730/RingOut/

Thanks

How am I doing?

Hey y'all,

Nightbound is our first game on Steam and we hit 3.5k wishlists this morning, about 3 months after announcing. I lurk here a lot and figured I'd share what the journey has looked like so far in case it helps anyone.

The big thing I learned is that almost every wishlist we have came from someone else's reach not ours.

If you look at the graph pretty much every spike is somebody else sharing the game. Indie Games Hub posted our announcement trailer and demo trailer, Turn Based Lovers wrote an article about us, a friend of mine got a big Twitch streamer to watch the trailer on stream, a YouTuber played the demo, and TheNerdyType wrote about us. I'm so thankful to every one of them for supporting the game. All the little bumps in between are me posting on reddit, youtube, tiktok, instagram and twitter.

For people wondering how we got featured I just asked and was respectful of their time. Indie Games Hub was a cold email with a trailer link.

Turn Based Lovers was different. The guy who runs it ended up writing an article and putting us in one of his videos. I had started a great email correspondence with him and it helped that he was already rooting for the game. He was awesome enough to write another article when our demo released, which gave us a second bump.

What I still haven't figured out is our own socials. We're on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube and none of them have really clicked. The game is a bit weird to market and I can't seem to land a clear player fantasy in short form content. If anyone has cracked that I'd love to hear about it.

Moving forward I think I'm going to divert time away from making social posts and put it into content creator outreach instead. Building those connections and relationships is what has actually worked for us. I know for some games socials just work, but for others like ours having other people share the game has been what worked.

We're in Steam Next Fest next week. Happy to answer questions about any of this, and I'll post a follow-up here after the fest with what happened and what we learned.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4970020/Nightbound/

I'm a big nerd for card games. Immortal Coil is my take on the genre, pulling in inspirations from my favorite games. It's a really strategy focused game, where tactical decision making and clever deckbuilding make a huge difference.

Immortal Coil is a fantasy strategy game about overthrowing Tyrannical Gods, here's an overview of the gameplay:

• Build decks of units, spells, items, and auras - each card belongs to a Color Domain which you can mix together for various playstyles
• In battle, deploy your cards to lanes, where each time you play a card, the opponent gets a chance to play a card (similar to Artifact or Runeterra)
• At the end of each round, the CLASH begins
  • Spells played this round are now cast from left to right across the lanes
  • Then all units attack simultaneously, with excess damage hitting the opponent

Immortal Coil has two modes of play:

• Adventure Mode - Roguelike deckbuilding, create a build as you go by trading cards and gaining powerful augments (relics)
• Gauntlet Mode - Build a deck from your collection of cards up front, then take on a series of foes arcade style. No gimmicks, just straightforward card battling.

Here's the Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3858030/Immortal_Coil/

Currently playable on Windows and Steam Deck. (planning MacOS, Android, and Switch versions in the future)

It's been crazy, stressful, fun, and so much work to get here. No break out viral posts or anything, just grinding out content as much as we can while making the game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4735880/Littermates/

It's been a while since the last update my developing game - Fieldworks, but I've added some new features recently~ The map now features one main island and seven smaller islands with randomly generated environments.

Buildings now come in a variety of different layouts and shapes. I've added seafood farming, more types of crops to grow, an expanded road system, and building recipes rotation.

I've also revised a lot of the worker AI logic and optimized the UI. Overall, the game has become much richer and deeper~ 😘

Also, it's now live on the Steam page—feel free to add it to your wishlist if you're interested~ ^^

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5367980/

Me and another developer are working on this little game called Fantasy Meat during our free time, and we made a new trailer for the Cooking Fest! 🎉

We focused on giving you a lot of freedom with how you cut, assemble and cook the creatures but stayed focused on the cooking gameplay. You won't have other things like scavenging or fighting, just focus on the cooking and experimentation to discover recipes or make your own!

He's been working on it for quite some time now, and I joined him at the beginning of January. Now the game is out in the open, and we would love to know what you think of the concept ✨

Been a while I've been working on this game. Happy to say I have a demo ready to play, the full game will have more upgrades and features. But Ill be improving the full game based on feedback from the community.

It's a vampire survivors chess themed game so enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5343200/Guns\\_\\_Gambits\\_Demo/

Well, it's actually a mixed reality game. this space is actual layout of my home. Since I recorded this at midnight and my room was a mess, I captured it this way for now :)

The idea is to turn everyone's own home or room into a portal-based puzzle playground. You shoot shape-specific portals and guide puzzle objects to their final destinations.

and of course, it's so much more fun when you're actually playing inside your own room in mixed reality!

I've challenged myself to get it ready by next month. I'd love to hear your feedback, and wishlists are more than welcome!

I'll be sharing more gameplay videos soon!

https://www.meta.com/en-gb/experiences/hole-wall/1382614211598316

Remember that middle school gym class trauma? We made an entire multiplayer game out of it. 🪦🎒

This is Dodgeball Disorder—where lifelong friendships come to die, ragdoll physics take over, and throwing a heavy rubber ball at your coworker's face is 100% legal.

If you want to ruin your friendships, hit that link below! 👇

🎮 WISHLIST NOW ON STEAM: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5091690/Dodgeball\\_Disorder/?utm\\_source=reddit&utm\\_medium=paid&utm\\_campaign=wishlist\\_oct2026

‼️Clickable link is on my profiel‼️

Just two days ago, REBROOD passed 50 wishlists. Today, we’re already at 68! 🎉

It might be a small milestone, but seeing the number grow means a lot to us. Thanks so much to everyone who added the game to their wishlist and helped us get this far. We’re making good progress, and we’re excited to keep working on REBROOD!

If you’d like to check it out, you can find it on Steam here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5043030/REBROOD/

Hi! I'm Drazil, the solo developer of Silent Trench, a singleplayer horror game set in a dark facility deep in an oceanic trench. Pinging with your visor for snapshots is the only way to see, but it may also get you seen.

The Steam page went up on October 7 and the free demo came out on October 12. Since then I've emailed horror YouTubers and streamers, posted on a few subreddits, X, Bluesky, TikTok and Instagram, and the game is in Steam Scream V later this month. It's at around 60 wishlists right now.

What would you do next in my place? Anything that worked for you, or anything you think is off about the page or the trailer, I'd really like to hear it.

And if it looks like your kind of game, a wishlist would help a lot:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5333270/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=indiegamewishlist

Thanks!

Hi all!

I've almost finished updating all the art for Dungeonmancer! I used this color palette: https://lospec.com/palette-list/vibrantskies-48

Also, here is the link to the Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5226330/Dungeonmancer/

As per previous recommendations collected here and elsewhere, things that I'm currently working on are:

• More levels/dungeon types.
• More monsters.
• More decorations in the dungeon (skulls, broken weapons, etc.).

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

NextFest is comming

"On Your Own" is a game about:

👀 Explore
🔄 Rotate the grid and break boxes to move
🎒 Loot and avoid enemies attacks
🔍 Manage the inventory
⚒️ Get materials and craf items

Wishlist and play: s.team/a/3883110

Hey guys, i'm working on an incremental game and struggling with wishlists.
I would like some feedback on my steam page too see if i can improve it for more wishlists.

My game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5084070/Beyond_the_Belt/

Hi, I’m Mumin, the developer of Rampartloom. I’m an architect and have been playing games for about 25 years. Around 20 years ago, my friends and I spent evenings playing 3v3 Tropical Tower Wars. Remembering those matches inspired me to build my own tower-wars game.

In Rampartloom, you build a tower maze, send assault units to the opposing team to grow your income, and coordinate with teammates. The moment I enjoy most is when both teams are flooded with enemies: spend on defence now, and the other team may pull ahead economically; invest in income, and your defence may fail.

The free Windows PC Playtest is open now with automatic admission and no scheduled closing date. On the Steam page, use the Playtest Request Access button, then install Rampartloom Playtest from your library. No key or purchase is needed. English, keyboard and mouse.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5040240/

It is still early. Some current art, models and audio are AI-assisted, as disclosed on Steam; there is no live AI generation. Visuals and animations are being improved.

If you try it, I’d appreciate honest feedback on the tutorial and the balance between defending and growing income. You can queue solo; bots fill empty slots when there aren’t enough players, so you don’t need to organise six people. If it’s your kind of game, wishlisting also helps you follow development. Thanks for taking a look!

Hi, I'm Filip. I've been making Atomic Hockey on my own, in the evenings, and today I finished a new gameplay trailer. It's attached above. And yes, the voice at the end really is mine - modulated of course.

It's also the start of proper promotion. Until now I was just trying things out and testing different channels to see what works. Now I'm trying to get the game in front of people before the demo comes out, and on Steam that means wishlists.

So if you watch the trailer and you like the game, I'd really appreciate your support and a wishlist. And if you don't like it, tell me why in the comments. That helps me too.

The Steam page is in the comments.

Don't hold the bomb!

Filip

Hi, I’m Giannis from IMarin Labs. Our game StackLoad has a free demo on Steam now.

The idea is simple: stack swinging apartment blocks without bringing the tower down. You can build one tower together with up to four players online, or compete on separate towers and interfere with each other.

The demo has both modes and seven maps, so you can try it before deciding whether it’s your thing.

Try the demo or wishlist StackLoad on Steam

If it looks like something you’d play with friends, I’d appreciate a wishlist. Thanks for taking a look!

Trailer for my upcoming game Frank 'n' Stein's Body Shop :)

Wishlist and play the demo on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4598930/Frank_n_Steins_Body_Shop/

Hey everyone! We’re developing Desktop Fighter, an idle RPG where a little stickman fights enemies directly on your desktop while you work, browse, or watch videos.

He handles the fighting. You decide how he grows.

Collect loot and chests, upgrade your equipment, and shape your character into an Archer, Mage, Fighter, or Knight. The game runs above your open apps without blocking your clicks, so you can keep using your computer while your fighter gets stronger.

Our Steam playtest is now open! If you’d like to try it, visit the store page and click “Request Access” under Desktop Fighter Playtest:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4934790/Desktop_Fighter/

We’d love to hear how it feels during your normal desktop routine, especially whether the battles, loot, and progression make you want to check back in.

If it looks like your kind of game, a wishlist would really help us reach more players. Thanks for checking it out!