Hey y'all

Thanks to @BulletWhale, I now have a list of all 2019 Steam releases, review numbers & price points. In this thread, I'll go over general data & statistics. More will follow later.

Are you ready?

Thread down below!

First, let’s start with my research method so that you understand what games I included and excluded.

I removed:

* All games with less than 10 reviews (+- 300 guesstimated sales)
* AAA titles
* All non-game software & F2P titles

This has left us with 2699 out of 8242 games. 67% of the games were removed by the steps above. I analyzed the remaining 2699 games.

Do note, some personal opinion is involved in regards to filtering out AAA games.

It’s also important to remember that all numbers I’m referring to, are the Median results. I’ve chosen to go for the Median, instead of the Mean, because any remaining outliers simply have a smaller effect on the Median.

As for my assumptions:

In order to guesstimate sales & revenues, I’m using @GreyAlien ’s method for calculating Steam sales by using Steam Reviews. It’s a great article, read it here:

http://greyaliengames.com/blog/using-steam-reviews-to-estimate-sales/

By using @GreyAlien's method, I multiplied the number of reviews by 30 to get a low sales guesstimate.

A situation that applies to 95% of all developers.

Of course, it might be higher but there is no use in comparing yourself to an outlier.

Finally, before we dive into the numbers:

Again: all the data are still estimates, and should be treated as such.

And any tips are given, or any opinions expressed, are those of my own.

Onto the numbers:

I started out with 8242 released Steam games in 2019, which boils down to an average of 23 game releases a day.

After removing +-68% of all games, 2699 games remain. This boils down to an average of 7 game releases per day.

According to the data, any average game on Steam in 2019:

Sells 1,380 copies (median)
Makes €10.074 in revenue (median)

at a median price point of €8,19

NOTE THAT: 'revenue' here means that all costs (refunds, chargebacks, discounts, sales tax, Valve's cut) still need to be deducted.

A developer only receives (roughly) 30-40% of these amounts in their bank account.

In this case, that means an amount between €3.022 - €4.029

Does the price of your game make any difference? YES.

Games priced for €10 or less (1668/2699 games):

sold 900 copies (median)
made €3.768 in guesstimated revenue (median)

at a median price point of €3,99

Games priced between €11-€15 (385/2699 games):

sold 1920 copies (median)
made €26.083 in guesstimated revenue (median)

at a median price point of €12,49

Games priced between €16-€20 (370-2699 games):

sold 4830 copies (median)
made €87.082 in guesstimated revenue (median)

at a median price point of €16,99

Games priced €21+ (276/2699 games):

sold 9270 copies (median)
made €290.163 in guesstimated revenue (median)

TIP 1:

As you can see, pricing your game at a lower price does not increase sales. Use discounts as a marketing strategy, STOP UNDERPRICING your game from the get-go.

Your game, your time, the time of your team members & all the hard work is worth a lot more than you think

In game development and everyday life, we tend to look at (or remember) the greatest successes the most. People start thinking that successes are the rule & not the exception.

However, only 124 out of the 2699 games have made a guesstimated revenue of more than € 1.000.000.

420 out of 2699 games have made a guesstimated revenue between €100.000 & €999.999. This means that 80% of Steam games in 2019 generated less than 100K in guesstimated revenue.

Start out SMALL, don't spend years of time & savings on big projects, 80% doesn't hit 100K!

TIP 2:

If you don’t like to do marketing, project management, or any other of the business(ey) roles, that’s totally fine.

But stop thinking that your game is going to sell itself, or that you can fill all of these roles yourself, besides making your game. Most devs can't!

If anything, apply for every grant you can find & attend conferences, reach out to universities, attend meetups & gatherings, join Facebook groups, etc, and NETWORK.

Find people with the skills you need, they are out there <3

As a business developer for @dutchgamegarden, I advise developers on how to build a realistic business proposition, which usually ends up being a part of their pitch decks.

A good pitch deck, in my opinion, not only needs to communicate your awesome game idea but should also communicate a realistic and viable business proposition.

It should aim to get you the means to develop the game while having a high chance of earning back initial dev costs.

This means, both the money and the time you (and others on your team) have invested or are going to invest in the project.

On top of that, it should make a profit. How else are you going to develop your next game?

This determines if you are able to make a living through games

Everyone is working on amazing things. Games that deserve to be seen & I want you to succeed. The truth is that for most devs, unfortunately, this doesn’t happen.

Hopefully, this thread will make you think & debate your way of doing things.

I’ll soon start & pin a new thread on my profile, called BREAKING EVEN. That thread will feature this and any upcoming threads about this topic.

I will dive into data related to specific tags, share resources, and anything else that hopefully contributes to you, breaking even.

If you've made it this far, you are amazing. If you found this helpful, please like & retweet.

I wish you all the best out there & good luck with your game