Steam users have spent $19 billion on games they've never played

I may have contributed to some of it 😅. I mean that is what steam sales are for...

Out of all the registered Steam accounts in the world, only 10%, or about 73 million inSteamIDFinder’s database, are public. Based on data from those accounts, we calculate that collectively there’s around $1.9 billion / £1.4 billion worth of games that have been purchased and then never played even a single time. Times that by ten, to roughly account for all the Steam profiles that are not public, and you arrive at $19 billion, more than the gross national product of Nicaragua, Niger, Chad, or Mauritius.

Steam users have spent $19 billion on games they’ve never played (pcgamesn.com)

Do you have any unplayed games in your closet?

Sometimes overwhelming choice is no choice at all

We have almost every game imaginable at our fingertips, services like Steam, GamePass, PSN heck any digital game store really devalues games. If you don't see games as valuable (but cheap entertainment you got ON SALE) of course you are going to spend your valuable time playing them

All those great sales! $5 here, $7 there...it adds up.

Not to mention all the bundles, I have no doubt there inflating the statistics a bit because a lot of the time if you buy a sequel or a game, especially with these independent developers, they'll lump in a prior game. Or you can get "franchise" or "developer" deals where it's actually cheaper to get the bundle.

But ignore all that; I'm sure you guys will just assume we are buying brand new games and never touching them 😋

Oh boy, do I!

I've gotten better about not "collecting" games just because they're cheap and only tend to buy games I really want to play.

Game Pass has also helped in this regard.

It should be not played yet, I plan to play all the games I have waiting.

Soon I'll be a gamepass subscriber and spend even less on games I don't play.

@tdkmillsy: how many unplayed games you have in your backlog?

I have around 10 and I am not sure I will ever play all of them.

about 10 I haven't played at all and another 10 or so that I've started and want to go back to.

Truthfully I probably won't get to them all :)

The problem is all of the sales that Steam offers, which is one of many reasons why I left the pastures where my other Cow friends were. You see games you want to play for dirt cheap, you buy it, play it for a little bit, it falls off the map, then the cycle continues. Or you buy a game you wanted to try but didn't want to commit to purchasing at full price, and it sits in your library. It's no different than buying physical games and having the same issue. Really, gamers, myself included, need to commit to only buying a game after you've beaten the one you're currently on. This would most certainly solve the issue. But FOMO with Steam sales doesn't help. It's a tactic that works.

When its cheap you have impulses. Tbh I never really bought that many games on steam. Its likely I never been interested in steam store and usually just browse the store to look for my next grand strategy games.

Not terribly surprised to be honest. I have a number of games that I haven’t played yet for my consoles and not just games that I purchased on sale. Got some that I purchased day one at full retail price. 😅

I'm included in that. With all these sales, I've become a games collector. I do the same with console games too. Hopefully I find the time to play them some day.

Yup, can confirm. I lost count of the times I spent $1 or $2 on games I never intended to play just because they were dirty cheap. FOMO does that to you and its the most deadly marketing strategy around

Problem is, gaming does not give me the same pleasure it once did. When I was younger and could only afford 1 game for whole months I used to treasure that game, beat it full, savor it. Now I'm already thinking about what I'll play next before fully enjoying what I'm playing atm...

The gaming market has become too bloated for its own good. Games have lost their value

I wonder why ...

Guilty as charged!

I still haven't played most of the games in my Steam library.

Super Mega Guilty, I have 1300+ games and still counting that I haven't touched. Thanks to my Legion Go I am steadily going through my backlog.

Even though I have been playing video games for more than forty years, I never bought or played more than four games in a year. I never knew gamers, especiallly on this forum, can purchase so many games, have a large backlog, and not even play the majority of the games they purchased.

I feel like an ant compared to gamers in System Wars.

I'm working on it...jeeze.

...Actually that number will probably rise ever so slightly with the next sale. I have a few more games I wanna get. Sorry about that.

I'm sure the number is bigger, my guess this is content acquired never fired up once. Perhaps doesn't include games fired up briefly never to be touched again.

I don't know about others but myself, always comes down to too much I want to play, not enough time to play it all. And it was bad nearly two decades ago when games were only a few hours long, 10-20 hours was meaty and 40 hours was epic. Now lots of stuff is designed to pad games out, some taking 100 hours or more, or have online features that keep players engaged for months or years. Not surprising games are harder to get through, and that would result in jumping to other games less frequently.

This is the reality, I try to stay aware of not being able to getting to everything I want to so if something new comes out, unless I'm dying to play it right away, I put it on my wishlist and grab it down the line when it's on sale while I work on other stuff... BUT, even then though, I grab stuff when on sale all the time with hopes to play it soon then that stuff starts piling up. And as a console gamer, the stronger digital ecosystem for content is flushed with games being discounted to bargains all the time. These titles just keep piling up.

I'm responsible for a few hundred of that.

Not many, apart from some I've received for free or a couple ones I'll play shortly. Never really feel pressured to take advantage of sales, since I know they'll come again or you can go to cdkey websites.

Reminds me of the first Steam sales, I bought a lot just because it was cheap and never touched

I am part of the problem.

In my defense though, my backlog reminds me to never pay full price for anything, rarely go over $5. That unplayed Steam library probably adds up to less than $70 fo me.

Not me. My "never played" games are usually from humble bundle or something like that.

I'm buying games as I play them

"Looks at his library collection of games." Yeah, I can believe this, my friends. Steam games hoarders, alright😅

I account for most of that myself but I've gotten better about it over the years. I have over a hundred games I've never even installed let alone played.

Oh yeah, i've for sure bought games and then got sidetracked. I buy with the intention to play, but other things can come up and they fall by the wayside.

Ooof my bad.

Anyone of you who is without sin can throw the first stone...

Just another reason why Steam is bad for gamers.

You know the funny thing about unplayed Steam games? This is proof that Gaben was right that piracy is a service issue, because this is literally the opposite of piracy on display. Instead of playing games they'll never buy, it's buying games they'll never play. Have good service and good prices and people will buy your shit even when they don't actually need it.

@Vaasman: piracy was definitely a service and pricing issue. Specially regional pricing. For a non developed country 60 dollars is the same as 600 dollars in the USA. Of course no one was buying games in non developed countries.

I've got some backlog games but not that much. Currently I only have 3 games that I need to finish and that's FF7R DLC, No More Heroes 3 and Star Ocean Second Story R.

I never understood buying shit that you're not playing the same day you bought it. Must be the "i have two wives, seven kids and 11 jobs, i don't have the time to do anything in life" kind of a person.

@hardwenzen: you strike me as person that is single and very young.

Constantly saying that you have no time for anything is nothing but cope. Coping with the fact that you don't really like gaming anymore, and you're just doing it out of habbit, or that you're downright garbage at managing your day. Not a single person that wastes time on a gaming forum should be crying about not having time to play video games, and that's fact.

@hardwenzen: so you are taking care of how many people? Is that more than zero ?

Are you taking care of them while being on a gaming forum talking about random stuff? Nope. That precious time of yours could be invested into playing something, but you aren't for the reasons above. This is not new, tho, i have been hearing this cope from guys in their 30's and up for ages. This excuse is also used on why X person is bad in games. Have seen it all, especially in mmo's.

Yes, I have a baby next to me as we speak. Writing a message is not as involved that you can't take care of them.

Gaming can be done as well, but not to the degree you can clear years long catalogues.

And sometimes, you can't really game uninterrupted cause you have to change diapers and shit like that.

So, it can be done, but not the degree as when you are a teenager.

I'd say mid 30's, single, living at home with his parents and possibly no job.

Age not far, single, own my business and work from my apartment. Not far, tho. Not bad.

Also an owner of a ps5.

Damn...I think I account for about 2 percent of those numbers... lol.

Like I always say, saved for a rainy day, right? No shame all game. Live your best life and the haters be damned.. oorah and all that.

I don’t think it’s a steam or PC thing. I think it’s a digital games thing. I have games like that on my consoles dating back to the 7th gen.

You said your first console was a N64, so that more than likely makes you in your 30's, single? yeah, I believe that. Own your own business and live in an apartment I don't see it because I have friends who own their own business and they are time poor, very time poor, so you being on here all-day posting is proof to me that's untrue.

I don't even think it's a digital thing either.

My nephew had a PS2 and he kept buying games for it, talking about how he would play them later. Life happened and well, he never played them.

I still have a bunch of gamecube and PS3 games that I never played because I was too busy playing PC games.

Maybe it's just cheap/easy to buy games, and with digital games not even requiring you to step outside your door, perhaps even cheaper/easier.

I believe you know more about myself that i, so that is beyond incredible to begin with, and to end with. I am blown away by your little friends that do X and have Y. Insane😱🤣

Yeah because lying on the internet to make yourself look good, no one's ever done that 🙄🤦‍♂️

Steam Summer Sale going on and there's nothing that interests me, except for maybe Elden Ring. :/

I'm thinking of buying the game again on Steam just to play it on the Steam Deck instead of on Xbox. Which really means I'll buy it again on Steam and never play it on either platform...