A video game marketing consultant believes Steam’s most powerful feature isn’t its extensive library or even its popular summer and winter sales, it’s the fact that most people hoard games.
Steam users are known for building massive game libraries, often filled with titles they’ll never actually play. It’s a running joke amongst the PC community, but according to one industry expert, the fact that many games collect digital dust in ever-growing backlogs is why Valve’s storefront thrives.
As highlighted in a GamesRadar+ report, Chris Zukowski explained how Steam’s success isn’t about how much people play games on Steam, but how much they buy on the platform.
Steam thrives because of backlogs claims analyst
“The amazing thing about Steam and its player base is that they buy games they aren’t going to play. More than likely, the person buying your game is not going to play it,” Zukowski writes in his latest blog post.
He compares Steam’s approach to the struggles of streaming companies like Netflix, which are competing with Fortnite, TikTok, and even sleep. However, Zukowski believes Valve has managed to avoid this competition altogether.
“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? 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.”
Zukowski backs this up with SteamDB stats showing that over half of the average player’s library goes unplayed. He even confessed that two-thirds of his own game collection has never been touched.
Gamers, like collectors, build up “piles of shame” that they rarely get around to playing.
“If Steam shoppers were rational and only bought games they were going to play, we would sell a lot fewer games. Half this industry would be gone,” he explained. “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.”
The marketing consultant also noted how this habit of hoarding and collecting is nothing new for people. In fact, he notes how popular hobbies like LEGO, Warhammer, knitting, and even book collecting all share this theme.
“Hobbyists buy stuff not because they actually want to consume it, but because they are collecting it,” writes Zukowski.
It’s this collector mindset that shapes how games get wishlisted, added to carts, or bought in bundles. “Steam players get satisfaction out of finding a hidden gem and adding it to their collection.”
Now, whether we choose to play through our backlogs is entirely up to us, but either way, Steam is a perfect example of how people love a good sale and collecting things. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to add a few games to my “pile of shame” before the Steam Summer Sale ends.
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