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Forums - Sales Discussion - Crunching the numbers, re: Steam sales.

Wow, the whole thread concept was destroyed in the first 7 minutes.



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the-pi-guy said:

Actually in the article it says that number is the median.  

This means that all we know is that 50% of all games sold more than this, and 50% sold less.  

A game could have sold a billion copies, and instead of changing everything, the tide would just slightly rise.  Maybe 32,001.  

For example, the median  in these two lists is 26

1; 26; 2,000

15;26;500,000

As you can see we can't pull together any meaningful information such as knowing what the total software sales are.  

Both lists are the same median wise, but the totals couldn't be more different and neither could the average.  2,027 vs 500,041


Feeling bold today?



#1 Amb-ass-ador

As the world's biggest Steam fan, let me say this; there are a lot of shit games on Steam. The Greenlight initiative has leaked a legion of crappy titles onto the store.
I still love it though and it serves all my needs. Knowing some of friends and seeing my own library on Steam, I'm finding 1.15 games per user very, well, unlikely.
An account with a single game or no games can't really be considered active imo, it's not like you install a desktop client for the (fairly poor) chat service.
I have 165 games on Steam right now and that's not even a lot compared to some accounts, and anecdotal as it is; I just can't believe those figures at all.

Edit; well, there ya go...

Edit 2; don't worry OP, we still like you!



the-pi-guy said:
ReimTime said:

Feeling bold today?

Yes.  

(I was copying and pasting something from the article, but I backspaced instead and wrote my own stuff which was bold for some reason.)


You make a good point btw
OT: Thank you for the analysis, Shadow, although the numbers may be a bit off XD



#1 Amb-ass-ador

If you want to make this kind of analysis, you'd be much better off using Steamspy as the reference. Keep in mind that is has some inaccuracies, and that it includes both free games and retail games purchased and activated on Steam. 

http://steamspy.com/



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the-pi-guy said:
Pineapple said:

If you want to make this kind of analysis, you'd be much better off using Steamspy as the reference. Keep in mind that is has some inaccuracies, and that it includes both free games and retail games purchased and activated on Steam. 

http://steamspy.com/

The article in the OP actually does use that source, it just is looking at a different aspect of it, than the OP thought it was.  

Which is mainly the author's fault, using "average" to mean "median."

 

 

Total games owned: 1,342,304,522

Average games per user: 10.38

http://steamspy.com/

Oh, you're right. Or rather, the VGChartz article is using an article that's Steamspy's creator's analysis.



the-pi-guy said:
Pineapple said:

If you want to make this kind of analysis, you'd be much better off using Steamspy as the reference. Keep in mind that is has some inaccuracies, and that it includes both free games and retail games purchased and activated on Steam. 

http://steamspy.com/

The article in the OP actually does use that source, it just is looking at a different aspect of it, than the OP thought it was.  

Which is mainly the author's fault, using "average" to mean "median."

 

 

Total games owned: 1,342,304,522

Average games per user: 10.38

http://steamspy.com/


Yay, PC gaming is still alive!



10.4 games per user still seems low for Steam, but it's possible. More interesting would be the average sale price for games. I currently have 78 games in my Steam library, 1 bought full price (Civ 5 $49.99), 4 in the $20 to $30 range, most under $10 or part of a cheap bundle, and some bought from somewhere else.

Checking my Steam account I have spent $415.65 since 2007, average of $7.42 per game. (After taking 22 games off from external sources, Kickstarter, Humble bundle, Origin and Physical)

Last year I spend $1065 on console games, $135 on PC games. About an 8:1 ratio. Same for time spend or likely a higher ratio in favor of consoles.



If you select the genre "Free" on Steamspy, and scroll down to the overview, you can see that the total number of copies in the "genre" is 287, so of those 1342 million games sold, 287 million of those are f2p games.



Ka-pi96 said:
Yeah, 10.4 per user does sound very low considering how many people say they have massive Steam backlogs. I'm much more of a console gamer yet still have 79 games on my Steam account so way more than the average per user. Gotta wonder what drags it down so much, is there a load of people with nothing but DOTA 2 on their account or something?


I have 2 games on steam. Cities: Skylines and Civilization 5. So I'm definitely dragging it down! I only have a Mac and I just buy games for PC when they aren't coming to consoles though. 



Official member of VGC's Nintendo family, approved by the one and only RolStoppable. I feel honored.