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[keenPenguin]

Hi,

the question topic says it all. As Steam is very closed about game sales data, what is a good measure of how well a game is doing on Steam? It seems like the number of reviews (and the ratio of positive/negative reviews) is the only indicator of popularity available for us. Do you think it is a good one?

[MeshGearFox]

No.

[gimymblert]

https://twitter.com/deepgabe

[starsrift]

I'd say in a general sort of way, yes. Keep in mind that genres attract different sorts and that there's a strong positive bias to steam reviews etc etc. But, yeah.

[VDZ]

It's highly variable. I once did some bad statistics trickery to make ballpark estimates of sales of certain visual novels on Steam, and from a sample size of 6 games with known sales numbers the ratio of reviews:sales ranged from 0.0061:1 to 0.0445:1. In other words, a game with 100 reviews could have sold anywhere from 2,247 units to 16,393 units. This is with only a sample size of 6; most likely it's even more variable than that.

It is some indicator of popularity, but a very inaccurate one.

[PentaX]

My sempai advice me that we can estimate total unit sold of the game by multiply the number of reviews with 30.

[Nillo]

I'm happy with using number of reviews as a measure of popularity and review ratings as a measure of quality, myself. It's generally sufficient for my purposes.

You should take a look at Lars Doucet's blog if you're interested in the developer side of this. He's the guy who put Defender's Quest on Steam and he writes openly about his experiences with Valve in terms of what to expect and how to succeed.

http://www.fortressofdoors.com/

Edit: On Twitter he told me it's anywhere between 50-200 sales per review. For him it was 65 sales per review. He mentioned Steam Spy as a good alternative if you're looking to estimate how well games are doing.

[Melon Mason]

I've read a few articles where game developers (specifically indies) have been able to release data on their Steam sales.

Usually if they've achieved upwards of 50,000 sales, they have upwards of 1000 - 2000 reviews at least.

I agree this isn't a perfect rule of thumb. Terrible games will have more reviews in the short term, because people are more likely to complain about a game they hate, then review a game they like.

[Paragonyx]

This is good information to know.

I'm curious though... aside from knowing the sales of a game for the sake of it, is there anyway this information can be helpful in the development of one's own game?

It's too easy to assume that it is for the sake of emulating another successful game as that would be another case of Flappy Bird and we all know how that and its clones turned out.

- Alexis

Paragonyx.com | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr |

[Melon Mason]

I'm curious though... aside from knowing the sales of a game for the sake of it, is there anyway this information can be helpful in the development of one's own game?

I'd say probably not. Clone games are rarely great games, like with your Flappy example. You have to offer your own spin on something

You could definitely learn from the failings of a game similar to yours, though. If you wanted to throw your hat into the pool of 2D crafting games like Terraria and Starbound, there is a lot you could learn from how they designed their games, and what people didn't like e.g Starbound was criticized for being released too early and having to be save wiped per update. Perhaps in that sense, you could find games that sold well within your target genre / style, and use them as a basis for inspiration.

[toiq]

http://steamcharts.com/

[Paragonyx]

I'm curious though... aside from knowing the sales of a game for the sake of it, is there anyway this information can be helpful in the development of one's own game?

I'd say probably not. Clone games are rarely great games, like with your Flappy example. You have to offer your own spin on something

You could definitely learn from the failings of a game similar to yours, though. If you wanted to throw your hat into the pool of 2D crafting games like Terraria and Starbound, there is a lot you could learn from how they designed their games, and what people didn't like e.g Starbound was criticized for being released too early and having to be save wiped per update. Perhaps in that sense, you could find games that sold well within your target genre / style, and use them as a basis for inspiration.

Yeah it does make sense to use it in that way. Thanks for the reply!

- Alexis