What metrics do publishers actually want to see?

In rough order of weight: (1) wishlist and pre-registration counts with attribution to traffic source, (2) email and Discord audience size with engagement rates, (3) audience quality signals including geo distribution, spend propensity, and genre fit, (4) early conversion data from any soft launch or pre-order, and (5) demonstrated activation capability, meaning proof the studio can move players from interest to action.

How many wishlists do I need before approaching a publisher?

There's no universal threshold. A 50,000-wishlist game with attributable traffic, a 20,000-strong owned audience, and demonstrated activation can be more fundable than a much larger wishlist count with no audience data underneath. Publishers reward audience quality and provability alongside the headline number.

What if my game isn't on Steam yet?

Build the audience layer in parallel with your wishlist plan. A pre-launch landing page that captures email, Discord, and intent signals can generate fundable traction even before the wishlist count grows. Many publishers in 2026 see this as a positive signal that the studio can build an audience the right way.

How do investors evaluate game studio traction differently from publishers?

Publishers are buying revenue exposure on a specific title; they want launch-ready traction. Investors are buying a studio's ability to repeat, so they care about CAC, LTV, audience compounding across titles, and the team's track record of converting traction into revenue. Owned audiences score well on both axes.

How do I prove traction to a game publisher or investor?

The three pillars publishers evaluate

Across the publishers Immutable works with, the same three pillars decide whether a deal happens:

Quality of the game. Necessary but not sufficient. A great-looking demo doesn't get a deal on its own.
Credibility of the team. Can the studio actually deliver, on schedule, at the quality bar set?
Proof of traction. The single biggest swing factor. Publishers are de-risking an investment, and traction is the only non-fakeable signal that the game will sell at launch.

Studios spend most of their pitch time on pillars one and two. Publishers spend most of their evaluation time on pillar three.

Why a wishlist number alone has become harder to interpret

A raw wishlist count is still a meaningful signal in 2026, but on its own it's increasingly hard for publishers to translate into a launch revenue forecast. The challenge is that wishlist counts don't carry information about audience quality, contactability, or conversion likelihood, and as industry wishlist conversion benchmarks have moved, the assumption that wishlists translate cleanly to sales needs to be backed up with more evidence.

What publishers want alongside the headline number is the audience underneath: who are these people, where did they come from, and can the studio reach them at launch?

What strong traction looks like in a publisher pitch deck

The strongest decks in 2026 show:

Attributable wishlists and pre-registrations: for each major source (TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, paid), the cost-per-wishlist and conversion rate downstream
Owned audience size: emails captured, Discord members, and engagement rates on each
Audience quality data: geo split, spend propensity scores, genre fit
Conversion proof: any pre-launch activation that has measurable lift (closed beta signups, Discord engagement, soft-launch revenue)
Repeat capability: evidence the studio can activate the same audience for DLC, sequels, or new titles

How to build this proof in 90 days

Three concrete moves. First, complement your wishlist and pre-registration funnel with a capture page that also collects email, Discord, and socials for the same player, with no impact on the wishlist itself. Second, layer attribution on every traffic source so the studio can show cost-per-wishlist and quality-per-source. Third, start activating the audience before launch with a personalised sequence, and measure the lift.

Immutable's attribution and conversion funnel generate the exact reports publishers and investors ask for. What many publishers find most compelling alongside the wishlist count is a screenshot of the underlying audience dashboard.

Sources: Aggregated from conversations with publishers including Tencent-affiliated studios, NetMarble, and indie-focused publishers, 2024–2026.