Why Your Steam Wishlists Aren't Turning Into Sales
TL;DR: A median game converts about 15-25% of its launch wishlists into first-week sales, so "only 1 in 5 bought" is normal, not a failure. Wishlists convert worse when they're old, when they came from giveaways or audiences that don't fit your game, when the launch email never reaches people, or when you launch into a crowded week. Most fixes happen before launch: keep your wishlist warm, launch outside big sales, and give fence-sitters a reason to buy now. After launch, every 20%+ discount sends another round of wishlist emails.
Key Takeaways
- Median first-week conversion: ~15% under 5,000 wishlists, ~20% at 5,000-40,000, ~23% at 40,000-100,000, ~25% above 100,000
- Only about 60-75% of your wishlisters receive the launch notification at all
- A wishlist from two years ago converts far worse than one from last month
- Giveaway and "wishlist to enter" campaigns add wishlists from people who wanted the prize, not your game
- Wishlists keep converting after launch week: every discount of 20% or more emails your wishlist again
You launched with 10,000 wishlists and sold 1,200 copies in the first week. Where did everyone go?
Usually, nowhere unusual. Wishlists are a soft signal. People add games they find interesting, then forget about half of them. This guide covers how to tell whether your conversion is actually low, the most common reasons wishlists don't turn into sales, and what you can still do about it. For how the notification system works under the hood, see How Steam Wishlists Work.
First: Is Your Conversion Actually Low?
"Conversion" here means first-week sales divided by the number of wishlists you had at launch. Based on Simon Carless's survey data at GameDiscoverCo, the medians look like this:
| Wishlists at Launch | Median First-Week Conversion |
|---|---|
| Under 5,000 | ~15% |
| 5,000 to 39,999 | ~20% |
| 40,000 to 99,999 | ~23% |
| 100,000+ | ~25% |
If you launched with 8,000 wishlists and sold 1,500 copies in week one, you converted about 19%. That's right on the median. The problem in that case isn't conversion; it's the size of the wishlist.
Only when you're well below the median for your bracket, say under half of it, is it worth looking for a conversion problem. Steamworks helps here: the Wishlist Breakdown report on the financial reporting site shows how many notification emails went out in a period and how many turned into purchases.
Reason 1: A Big Part of Your Wishlist Never Hears About Launch
Steam's launch notification is the moment wishlists pay off. But it doesn't reach everyone.
- Only 60-75% of wishlisters receive notifications. Unverified email addresses and notification settings filter out the rest.
- Notifications have a cooldown per game. Steam sends a player at most one wishlist email about your game every two weeks or so, and longer during big sales. If you sent a demo notification or ran a 20%+ discount shortly before launch, part of your wishlist may still be on cooldown when the launch email goes out.
- Launch week is noisy. Launch during a seasonal sale and your email lands between dozens of discount notifications for other games.
- An email is easy to ignore. Even people who receive it may not open it on launch day.
What to do: Keep the two to three weeks before launch free of other wishlist emails: no demo notification, no discount. Don't launch during a major Steam sale. Give players more than one reason to notice your launch: a launch trailer, a post on your socials and community, and coverage from press and creators in the same week. Your wishlist email works better when people have just seen your game somewhere else.
Reason 2: Your Wishlists Went Stale
A wishlist is interest at one moment. If that moment was two years ago, the player may have moved on, bought a similar game, or forgotten why they added yours.
Games that sit on "Coming Soon" for a long time without news tend to see this. The wishlist number keeps growing, but the older part of it converts poorly.
What to do: Keep your wishlist warm in the months before launch.
- Post regular Steam events and updates. Players who follow your game see them in their activity feed.
- Release or update a demo, and send the one-time demo notification to your wishlisters. Do it at least three weeks before launch, or your launch email can hit the cooldown.
- Join festivals and Next Fest so your game shows up in front of your existing wishlisters again.
- Announce the release date early, so launch doesn't come out of nowhere.