Valve "cracked the problem that Netflix was struggling with" using diehard gamers and their backlogs, Steam expert says: "You get access to a bunch of drunken sailors who spend money irresponsibly"

"The power of Steam as a platform is that it enables hoarding," reckons Steam expert and games marketing analyst Chris Zukowski, arguing that "Valve cracked the problem that Netflix was struggling with" by tapping into hardcore gamers who love a fat backlog.

"Most people who buy your game won't play it," Zukowski argues in a blog post, and that ratio will only skew higher for games that appear in bundles like Humble Bundle. He touches on the attention economy that all entertainment faces nowadays, pointing to Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings saying that the streaming platform is competing with other entertainment services, video games, and even sleep.

"Now you are reading these quotes, developing your game, hoping that it will sell well, and you might fear that if Netflix, Fortnite, and sleep are all competing for a person's time, how are you, tiny indie, possibly going to steal an hour away from these giants?"

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The reason "Steam makes indies so much money compared to all the other platforms" is that Valve has "built up an audience that is full of super diehard hobbyists" who aren't necessarily competing in that attention economy because they don't actually have to play the games they buy, Zukowksi reasons.

"Hobbyists buy stuff not because they actually want to consume it, but because they are collecting it," he continues. He points to the famous "pile of shame" found in almost all hobbies, and perhaps especially on a platform like Steam where purchases are just a click away. Just as your eyes may be bigger than your stomach, your interests may eclipse the time you can feasibly spend on them. But you can still spend money.

In 2024, Zukowski notes, Simon Carless found that over half of the median Steam player's library is unplayed, and he also cautioned devs that a lot of people will buy a game but not play it. (Zukowski admits 2/3 of his own library is unplayed.)

This brings us back to time and attention. "Valve cracked the problem that Netflix was struggling with: how do you sell to people who have so much entertainment at their fingertips that they don’t have enough hours in the day to play and watch it all," Zukowki says. "Valve basically added infinite hours to a gamer’s day, it is a theoretical future day where gamers might someday spend hours playing your game (but let’s be honest, won’t)."

Steam obviously isn't the only gaming storefront with a library that can soak up games, but it is home to downright legendary sales, it gets the most games, it has better social and curation features than any other gaming storefront, and it has a lot of fun tools that let users organize and visualize their digital collection. There are hoarders on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo platforms, to be sure, but in my experience and observation there ain't no backlog like a Steam backlog.

Zukowski's Steam Next Fest survey data found that, "for the median game most people only wishlist a game without even playing the demo. THE DEMO IS FREE! If players are so interested in the game, why don’t they play it!"

This doesn't mean demos are unimportant or less valuable, mind you. It's just reinforcing the point that "regardless if it is a free demo, or a full game, hobbyists find satisfaction in collecting. Even if they know deep down that they will never actually play it."

"If Steam shoppers were rational and only bought games they were going to play, we would sell a lot fewer games," he says. "Half this industry would be gone. Knowing Steam players are hoarders explains why you give them that 30%: you get access to a bunch of drunken sailors who spend money irresponsibly."

While Zukowksi doesn't think this trend is something to stress over, he does add that it may support games with a "very clear genre" because that can feed into this behavior of, "Ah, I love open world survival crafting games! I know this! I am definitely going to play this once I am finished with the other 20 OWSC games in my collection." Whereas "if your genre is ambiguous, you won’t be picked up by hoarders."

With serendipitous timing: I have 464 games on my Steam wishlist, 23 games in my Steam Summer Sale shopping cart, and I can feel my already overstuffed library giving me the side-eye.