Steam wishlist to sales conversion rate

Conversion is usually measured as first-week sales divided by the wishlists you had at launch. Two published benchmarks from GameDiscoverCo:

• Games launched August–October 2024 with at least 5,000 launch wishlists: a median of 10.5%, about 1 first-week sale for every 10 wishlists.
• An older 2020 survey of 50 developers: a median of 0.2 sales per wishlist in the first week, with full releases (0.22) converting better than Early Access (0.16).

The newer number is lower. More games launch on Steam every year, and players wishlist more games than they buy. Plan with about 10%, not 20%.

• Price: cheaper games convert a larger share of wishlists.
• Launch type: full releases tend to convert better than Early Access.
• Where the wishlists came from: people who watched someone play your game and chose to wishlist it are more likely to buy than people who clicked a giveaway or an ad. See how to pay creators to play your game.
• Launch discount and timing: Steam emails wishlisters when the game launches and when it goes on sale, so a launch discount gives them a reason to buy now.

Launch week is only the first test. Wishlisters get an email at every discount, so wishlists keep turning into sales for years, mostly around seasonal sales.

That’s also why fake wishlists are worthless: bots never buy, in launch week or later. See fake Steam wishlists.

To turn conversion into a price, see what a Steam wishlist is worth and costs.