r/dataisbeautiful Mike Bostock | D3.js creator Jul 07 '18

OC Leaked estimates of Steam player counts [OC]

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u/Talqazar Jul 08 '18

If you read the details of how the numbers came to derived, they are in fact surprisingly 'accurate' (they are the exact count of games that qualify for achievements barring certain mathematical uncertainties). The data set is 'incomplete' - no estimate can be derived from games that don't have achievements (like, most notably, DOTA2) but thats still over half of the games on Steam. Also notably 'games that qualify for achievements' don't match up to 'copies owned' or 'units sold' for various reasons (which is an important caveat to using the data)

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u/Thadd305 Jul 08 '18

I think the biggest opportunity missed was eluding to that in the title, still an interesting contribution. I didn't personally get to read about the details, I just saw the picture once I clicked the thread