The number is based on the 10% of Steam accounts visible publicly. And then they calculated based on current full retail price of the unplayed games. It’s a nonsense figure.
For sure. Easily half (likely more) of my unplayed games are Bundle games from a bundle I got primarily for something else. There’s a few gems I’m sure.
There are a few games I bought on sale to play later as well (I’ll get to you!) but the other glaring flaw I see is a selection bias. The people who use this service or similar services are going to be the heavier Steam users with collections in the hundreds.
So heavier users, with lots of bundle games and sales. I’d divide that total by 10 at least
This statistic is misleading. They have no way of knowing what people paid for those games. The “value” isn’t just the Steam price.
As many people have mentioned here, most games in big Steam libraries come from bundles. It’s pretty typical to get games for, like, $1-2 each in those. I regularly get 8 games for $10, of which I only really want 1. I play the one I cared about and get my $10 worth. There’s no “lost value” so long as I got my money’s worth from the title I played.
I take an even bigger view: if I buy 10 bundles for $10 each, and get 1 absolute banger (for my preferences) and a few others that are fun for a bit, then I’m happy. I often add 20 new games to my library in a month, and only immediately play 1. That doesn’t mean I have “$400 value of games I’ve never played.”
That doesn’t mean I have “$400 value of games I’ve never played.”
I’d argue that what you pay for a game and the market value are two different things. The statistic is definitely misleading. The headline should read:
Steam users purchased games they haven’t played valued at $19b.
I’d say it’s pretty rare for people to pay full value for loads of games, i.e. I agree most unplayed games came in bundles, or were gifted/purchased at massive discount.
I have also bought a bundle from the spiffing brit, which was 85 games valued at €1500 for like €40. I bought it mostly for the charity and a couple of games, so it’s very misrepresented to say I haven’t played €1500 worth of games
I have over 500 titles in my backlog of shame (loads of freebies, but still shameful). If I play a new game every week, it’ll take me 10 years to get through it.
What if some are absolute bangers and I sink 300+ hours in? I’ll never be finished!
But what if none of them are? For 10 years I’d have slogged through a quagmire of mediocrity for nothing other than to tick a series of boxes.
I just want to point out how incredible it is that in today’s age we have this incredible amount of entertainment available. Even if we apply Sturgeons law that’s still a fill years worth of solid games. He’ll, do it twice. That still means there’s at least 5 bangers in that mess, and I find it incredible that most all of that content is recent!
So, what you are saying is that all the people using steam combined might make it to the top 100 list of billionaires if their unplayed games were personified?
Fuck do I ever relate to this. I probably have over 200 titles in my Steam library that I redeemed from Humble Bundles and have never installed. Insane.
yup this is me. When Humble Bundles were insanely good I just bought them all the time. I’d say half my library, if not more, are from those bundles and I haven’t touched most of them. And I even ended up giving away a lot of keys from the bundles too. Like for a couple years there I used them has christmas presents for friends only if they were really good games that I either already owned or had no intention of playing.
I have a bunch of games I bought a while after playing the pirated versions, and I usually don’t play them at all.
I guess there isn’t really a way to see how many people do this.
Most of my unplayed games were part of bundles, or giveaways. But I am guilty of buying games and only playing them a small time before moving on to the next new different thing.
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