How many wishlists for Steam’s Popular Upcoming list?

Valve has never published a threshold. For years developers tracked roughly 7,000 wishlists as the point where a game was likely to appear in Popular Upcoming around its launch, a figure popularized by Chris Zukowski of How To Market A Game.

In June 2026, according to reporting by games.gg citing Zukowski’s data, Valve raised that bar sharply for new entries, to roughly 100,000 wishlists. For most indie games, Popular Upcoming is now out of reach.

Steam’s Personal Calendar shows upcoming games to players whose interests already match them. Developers reported it sending 300 to 3,000 wishlists a day, with a reported entry threshold of 8,000 to 30,000 wishlists, and click rates far above Popular Upcoming.

Both reported figures come from developers sharing data, not from Valve, so treat them as a direction rather than a rule.

• Wishlists still decide visibility. The bar moved up, not away.
• Who wishlists matters more. The Personal Calendar matches games to interested players, so wishlists from real fans of your genre help more than raw numbers.
• Start early. Wishlists build up over months, and late pushes rarely close a gap of thousands. Steam Next Fest is one of the few moments that adds them in bulk.

Creators who already play your genre bring the right players. Post a job and pay only for wishlists Steam verifies.