PC & Video Games

37% of purchased Steam games are never played

  • Last Updated:
  • Apr 24th, 2014 2:05 pm
Tags:
None
Deal Addict
User avatar
Oct 24, 2004
2726 posts
98 upvotes

37% of purchased Steam games are never played

http://www.shacknews.com/article/84088/ ... ver-played
A study into Steam playing habits has found that more than a third of all games purchased through the service have never been loaded up even once.

An extensive Ars Technica (via GameSpot) report combed through 172 million Steam community IDs over the course of two months, and some of the results are surprising. 36.9% of purchased games have never been loaded, while another 17% have been played for less than an hour. The study credits generous Steam sales or bundling for this statistic, noting that many users go in with the best intentions of getting around to all the games they pick up on the cheap but those tend to fall by the wayside.
i'm definitely a victim of this. out of my 159 games ~25 i've never played; ~20 i've played < 1.5hrs and never played again; 8 titles with > 200 hrs and 2 titles with over 1500 hrs of gameplay.
there's also another article on ars expanding the 100 most popular titles on Steam.

damn Steam and all those sales! but its more money in their pocket
22 replies
Deal Addict
User avatar
Oct 7, 2011
2680 posts
6237 upvotes
Windsor
Same with my ps+ games and some games I got on sale.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Oct 23, 2003
8455 posts
2000 upvotes
When games are 2-3 bucks and aaa titles are down to 5 or less if theyre old, you buy in bundles. If i get to them, great. If i dont, i only wasted a maximum of 5 bucks. I paid more for stupid stuff in the past, at least this money keeps gaming afloat a bit more. Especially if its indie games.
Deal Addict
Dec 9, 2010
3784 posts
181 upvotes
Barrie
These are steam sales we are talking about, most people likely havent wasted that much money even if they dont play 37% of their games.
We don't know, so it's possible. And it's possible, so it's probably probable.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Oct 24, 2004
2726 posts
98 upvotes
Agafaba wrote: These are steam sales we are talking about, most people likely havent wasted that much money even if they dont play 37% of their games.
it's not the issue of amount of $, its the fact that we're basically doing what the picture is showing
Deal Fanatic
Dec 12, 2006
6673 posts
2688 upvotes
calgary
You can save a lot of money with Steam if you wait and time your purchases properly but I fell victim to buying games simply because they were cheap and not playing them.

Don't feel bad for me though, I only maybe threw 50$ tops down the toilet lol.

On the flip side a lot of the games I bought and sunk countless hours into I only paid a few bucks for or got for free.
Deal Addict
Nov 29, 2011
2310 posts
1068 upvotes
Toronto
It is a clever business tactic. Offer steep enough discounts and consumers will just buy more. In the end, they are spending more than what they would have if the games were priced higher.

Same thing happens at clothing stores when they offer huge sales. People spend more money on clothes, but some they might only wear just once or twice, if at all.
Deal Fanatic
Dec 12, 2006
6673 posts
2688 upvotes
calgary
heywhatsmyname wrote: It is a clever business tactic. Offer steep enough discounts and consumers will just buy more. In the end, they are spending more than what they would have if the games were priced higher.

Same thing happens at clothing stores when they offer huge sales. People spend more money on clothes, but some they might only wear just once or twice, if at all.
LoL this whole website is based around deals... how many people have bought something posted on this website that they didn't really want or need simply because it was a "hot deal"?
Deal Expert
Dec 26, 2010
25986 posts
10378 upvotes
I read the whole set of articles and their update. The author admitted that much isn't known about total sales because, unlike the movie industry, many of the biggest companies for games do not divulge their total sales. So, a lot is speculation. Also the article says they cannot take into account things like Battlenet, so they don't know how many people are playing what game, bought but never activated (my case for the PC version of Diablo III and the expansion), etc. A bit of a crapshoot when it comes to info...
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jun 12, 2003
15213 posts
1671 upvotes
Markham
heywhatsmyname wrote: It is a clever business tactic. Offer steep enough discounts and consumers will just buy more. In the end, they are spending more than what they would have if the games were priced higher.

Same thing happens at clothing stores when they offer huge sales. People spend more money on clothes, but some they might only wear just once or twice, if at all.
+1 smart business tactics

i'd take this any day over DLC or P2W
ShadowVlican
Deal Expert
User avatar
Oct 9, 2003
18046 posts
980 upvotes
Im a terrible offender for this... id say that most of my steam games are not even downloaded hahaha. Im not worried about money though so im ok with them being there simply for an option to play later.
Deal Addict
Dec 9, 2010
3784 posts
181 upvotes
Barrie
Little Dragon wrote: it's not the issue of amount of $, its the fact that we're basically doing what the picture is showing
Are they though? If I buy a bundle with 6 games I play and 4 I dont for $20 have I thrown money away compared to spending $5 on each game?
We don't know, so it's possible. And it's possible, so it's probably probable.
Newbie
Jun 24, 2013
27 posts
1 upvote
Mississauga
Well its just that their offers are so intriguing and then a few days later you think, What have I done??
Deal Addict
User avatar
Aug 15, 2003
3310 posts
744 upvotes
Ottawa
I was waiting for the day this kind of information would come out. I was expecting at least 70%, though.
Penalty Box
May 12, 2011
3407 posts
487 upvotes
North Vancouver
Jorpho wrote: I was waiting for the day this kind of information would come out. I was expecting at least 70%, though.
Same

Lots of love and thanks
Deal Fanatic
Jan 12, 2005
5186 posts
1829 upvotes
Mississauga
Most of the games I buy are in bundle, hence I don't play some of them.
Deal Addict
Jul 23, 2008
1245 posts
338 upvotes
Montréal
By theway, does anyone know when the next Steam sale will be ?
Deal Addict
User avatar
Sep 5, 2011
1447 posts
721 upvotes
Toronto
37% doesn't seem that bad.
I definitely have a huge backlog of games but yeah, most of the games I purchased were in bundles where I only wanted 1 or 2 games and paid minimally for them.

Top

Thread Information

There is currently 1 user viewing this thread. (0 members and 1 guest)