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Valve made it roughly 15 times harder for indie games to reach a coveted Steam ranking, but one expert says an understated new Steam feature is doing god's work External Article (www.gamesradar.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/Bside@fedia.io
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Last month, Valve changed the requirements for a game to break into Steam's "Popular Upcoming" feed, which is coveted among indie developers as a way to gain visibility on the store and reach more players. Spending a few days or weeks in this feed can lead to big jumps in wishlists and eventually sales.

Multiple estimates indicated that where games would only need about 7,000 Steam wishlists to enter this feed previously, they now need about 100,000 as Valve prioritizes the biggest upcoming games. Several smaller developers despaired, bracing for a dip in Steam reach, but indie expert Chris Zukowski says another Steam feature has picked up the slack of Popular Upcoming and even benefited indies overall.

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[–] 14 points 4 months ago (1 child)

In a recent blog post, Zukowski highlights a Steam feature that impressed me last year and which I've used regularly ever since: Personal Calendars.

Because the personal calendar is more tightly curated and personalized, Steam users are more likely to click with, and indeed click on, the games it shows them, whereas the Popular Upcoming feed was more of a shotgun blast of disparate games.

There.

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