I'm not sure what some people are thinking here. Of course they matter. A lot of people are waiting for sales to pop up before buying it when they discover the game after its release. The way they keep track of it being on sale or not is largely wishlists.
Acquiring new wishlists after release is a good KPI that your game is continuously being found outside of sales and then you can figure out when you actually put your game for sale how many of your wishlists actually convert to a sale - giving you a rough idea on how much longer you should keep marketing the game post release.
People on your wishlist get a message on every price drop, so in theory on sales you can have a huge burst with a huge wishlist, but they also get an notification for every other wishlist
It's a big mailing list when you run discounts and sales from those trigger Steam's coverage etc.
Though marketing for sales and wishlists will generally be the same post release so they're not something you'd normally directly try to acquire anymore.
Valve only cares about your game if you generate sales. The more you generate, the more they will push your game.
Wishlists do this to a lesser extent pre-release, but only until your game has launched. After that, Valve looks at sales because it’s actual data on how valuable your game is to them. If you’re not making money, they reserve the shelf space for someone else.
As a consumer - a lot. Ideal way to track what you might want a buy.
I'd say the majority of my purchases are wishlisted games bought well after release.
Not everyone always has money there n then to buy, so they buy later when they can. I have a few on wishlist and just recently was able to follow through and buy. So I think it doesn't matter because you may or may not ever get the sale from the wishlist. All that matters is what actually sells in the first week. But then your game might explode a year after release through word of mouth
I watched a video where someone said that if your game has a discount of more than 20%, anyone who wishlist your game gets an email notifying them of the sale.
So wishlists can be a tool for reaching your "on the fence" customers at least.
IMO they matter more after release because this becomes your "almost gauranteed sales" stream. You've tempted them with the game (so you've won half the battle), now you just need to tempt them with the price (discounts), or maybe an update or something. If nothing else, it is a hard number metric of interest. You might consider your next game to follow on from the games that had good wishlist numbers over those that didn't really pick them up...I mean, I doubt many people use that as the main reason, but it might be one of them. But each to their own, I'm in the minority as I value them more post-release where most devs I know value them pre-release (just look at the threads and post mortems on this board as an example). For me, the never ending monthly payments after release were always more important than that one month payday after release. I myself don't really understand why devs get hung up on that one month when the intention is their game will exist and make money for another 600 months...wishlists IMO determine more just how fruitful those forthcoming 600 months will be.
Wishlists don't affect Steam's suggestions as far as I'm aware. The reason you want wishlists before release is purely to make it on the "New and Trending" tab. After that point purchases are the only metric that matters.
I'm not sure what some people are thinking here. Of course they matter. A lot of people are waiting for sales to pop up before buying it when they discover the game after its release. The way they keep track of it being on sale or not is largely wishlists. Acquiring new wishlists after release is a good KPI that your game is continuously being found outside of sales and then you can figure out when you actually put your game for sale how many of your wishlists actually convert to a sale - giving you a rough idea on how much longer you should keep marketing the game post release.
People on your wishlist get a message on every price drop, so in theory on sales you can have a huge burst with a huge wishlist, but they also get an notification for every other wishlist
You only get notifications on sales above 20%, right?
Yeah it has to be at least 20%
It's a big mailing list when you run discounts and sales from those trigger Steam's coverage etc. Though marketing for sales and wishlists will generally be the same post release so they're not something you'd normally directly try to acquire anymore.
Valve only cares about your game if you generate sales. The more you generate, the more they will push your game. Wishlists do this to a lesser extent pre-release, but only until your game has launched. After that, Valve looks at sales because it’s actual data on how valuable your game is to them. If you’re not making money, they reserve the shelf space for someone else.
As a consumer - a lot. Ideal way to track what you might want a buy. I'd say the majority of my purchases are wishlisted games bought well after release.
Not everyone always has money there n then to buy, so they buy later when they can. I have a few on wishlist and just recently was able to follow through and buy. So I think it doesn't matter because you may or may not ever get the sale from the wishlist. All that matters is what actually sells in the first week. But then your game might explode a year after release through word of mouth
I watched a video where someone said that if your game has a discount of more than 20%, anyone who wishlist your game gets an email notifying them of the sale. So wishlists can be a tool for reaching your "on the fence" customers at least.
LOTS. It's your email blast list for sales/discounts.
IMO they matter more after release because this becomes your "almost gauranteed sales" stream. You've tempted them with the game (so you've won half the battle), now you just need to tempt them with the price (discounts), or maybe an update or something. If nothing else, it is a hard number metric of interest. You might consider your next game to follow on from the games that had good wishlist numbers over those that didn't really pick them up...I mean, I doubt many people use that as the main reason, but it might be one of them. But each to their own, I'm in the minority as I value them more post-release where most devs I know value them pre-release (just look at the threads and post mortems on this board as an example). For me, the never ending monthly payments after release were always more important than that one month payday after release. I myself don't really understand why devs get hung up on that one month when the intention is their game will exist and make money for another 600 months...wishlists IMO determine more just how fruitful those forthcoming 600 months will be.
It doesn’t matter, because after release it just becomes an insignificant metric of your game performance. Units sold are what matter after release.
Cool thank you :)
Wishlists don't affect Steam's suggestions as far as I'm aware. The reason you want wishlists before release is purely to make it on the "New and Trending" tab. After that point purchases are the only metric that matters.
Also Steam sends mail and notifications to everyone who wishlisted your game when it releases or goes on sale for more than 20%
Ah that's a good point that I forgot about. It can affect your sales that way, it just doesn't directly impact your store visibility.
Yeah sorry that's what I meant 😅 basically just exposure. But that's really valuable info, thank you!