Chapter No More Robots — on the impact of rising prices on game sales on Steam

Last week App2Top.ru published the opinion of game designer Simon Carless on why indie games should cost at least $20. Rose came to similar conclusions after researching products on Steam, reports Gamesindustry.biz .

Rose’s Research

For analysis, he selected 170 games released from July 5 to August 6 this year. The selection did not include AAA, as well as games with less than 10 reviews on Steam.

Rose took publicly available data on the number of copies sold and the revenue of these games in the release month. He obtained this information by analyzing game centers (communities within Steam), the number of reviews for the game and its price tag.

Then, using algorithms, Rose predicted the sales of the game for the first year. And compared these data with the results of the same study for July 2018.

Here’s what happened:

• the average cost of a game on Steam is $10 (against last year’s $12);
• the average selling circulation of games is 1500 copies (against last year’s 5000 copies);
• the average income from the game in the first year is $ 16 thousand (against last year’s $ 30 thousand).

Rose also found a direct link between an increase in the price of the game and an increase in its quantitative sales:

• at a price of $21 and above, the number of copies sold per year reaches 5000;
• at a price of $16-20 — 2500 copies;
• at a price of $11-15 — 2000 copies;
• at a price of $ 10 and below — 1000 copies.

It turned out that the average game on Steam, which costs $ 15, generates an income of $ 35 thousand. If the price tag grows to $ 25, then the income grows to $ 200 thousand.

Why is this happening?

The number of free games is growing in the Steam store, and the prices for paid games are gradually decreasing. The high frequency of releases also leads to a decrease in sales on the site. Let’s add that there are now more than 40 thousand indie projects on Steam alone.

According to Rose, an increase in the price tag for the game (as opposed to a decrease) has a better effect on sales. This is exactly what Simon Carless said: the low cost of the game can be associated with a low-quality product. In addition, games in the higher price category — $ 20-25 — are more often flashed in front of users.

Also on the topic:

• Why does your indie game deserve to sell for $20?