A gaming marketing analyst looking intoSteam’s success and how its users spend time and money on games has referred to the userbase as “a bunch of drunken sailors who spend money irresponsibly.” The comparison may surprise or offend someSteamfans, but despite the harsh wording, the analyst has some data backing up his claims.
It’s been an ongoing joke that gamers havemore games in their libraries than they actually have time to play, yet they still keep spending money on new games. Exciting releases, word-of-mouth trends, discounts, and no need to keep physical copies can lead to a bit of hoarding for some fans. That tendency is what this analyst is taking a look at.
Games marketing analystChris Zukowski wrote an articledetailing how a surprising portion of players don’t actually play the game they own, referring to the users as “drunken sailors… who spend money irresponsibly.” Zukowski compares players' unplayed libraries to other hobbies, stating that hobbyists don’t care how much they spend on a subject they’re interested in. He pointed to statistics from a year ago that indicate that on Steam, the average user has only played half of the games that they own. He indicates that Steam has “super gamers” who repeatedly spend money on games when they don’t intend to actually play them.
Why Steam Gamers Keep Buying New Games
There are some additional reasons for this trend. For example, most Steam players have bought at least one game that’s been on sale. TheSteam Summer and Winter salesare a major occasion for PC gamers, with numerous titles seeing steep discounts over this period of time. This can lead to annual impulse buying for players, even if they’re already preoccupied with something else and don’t have time to play a new game.
One thing worth pointing out is that this information seems to correlate with a prior survey which found thatmost PC gamers are playing older games. That study looked at nearly 80,000 gamers and found that 67% of time spent on gaming was going to games six years old or older, with another 25% dedicated to games between two to five years old. It seems likely that many of these players are nonetheless buying new games, even if they’re not actively playing them.
As gaming becomes more and more popular, excellent new games are landing all the time, whether from AAA studios or indie developers. On top of that,loved older games are being ported or remade, further adding to the pile of titles that players want to check out. At this point, there simply may not be enough hours left in the day for the average PC gamer to play everything that they want to. Whether spending money like a “drunken sailor” is simply a lack of time management or wishful thinking, it doesn’t seem like the trend will change anytime soon.
