Research on Steam, from its own numbers.
Original studies built on Steam's data and on what Coilr tracks. Every report states its method and sample size, and the figures are free to quote with attribution.
Every report
Libraries·
The bigger the Steam library, the less of it gets played
The typical library holds games its owner has never started, the share climbs with every shelf a collection adds, and nearly all the hours go into a handful of favourites.
22%
of the typical Steam library has never been launched
Player counts·
Steam runs on old games
Half of everyone playing is in a game most of a decade old, a quarter in one more than a decade old, and even the year’s biggest launches only thicken the newest layer for a few weeks.
8.8 yrs
age of the game the median Steam player is in: PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS
Player counts·
Half of Steam is inside a few dozen games
Of the ten thousand games with anyone in them on a given day, a few dozen hold half of all players — the median game has a handful, thousands have nobody, and the split barely moves from one day to the next.
Player counts·
Three things move a Steam game, and Counter-Strike got none of them
Every large swing in a summer of player counts traces back to an update, a price cut or a season — and the games none of those reached drifted quietly downwards.
102,126
concurrent players lost by Counter-Strike 2 over a summer the median game spent flat
Prices·
Past twenty dollars, every step up in price costs a Steam game review points
Below about twenty dollars price barely moves a review score; above it the line only goes one way, and it holds at every audience size big enough to measure.
6.1 pts
between the best-reviewed price band and $50-and-up, across 5,111 paid games
Player activity·
Steam has one rush hour, and it is Sunday afternoon
Player counts swing by a factor of two between the busiest and the quietest hour of the week, and most games reach their own high point in the very same hour of the day.
2.59x
between the busiest and quietest hour of the week, across 517 games
Reviews·
The best-reviewed games on Steam are the ones you play alone
Review scores fall in a near-straight line from games played alone to games played against other people, and the order holds whether a game has 200 reviews or 200,000.
86%
average score for solo games, across 8,342 games
Achievements·
Almost nobody finishes a Steam game
Of the players who unlock any achievement at all, only a sliver unlock every one, and the more achievements a game ships, the fewer people finish it.
1.9%
median completion rate across 929 games
Working on something and want a cut of the data that isn’t published here? The underlying player-count history, review trends and achievement rates are all things Coilr tracks. Say what you need.