What's the minimum wishlist count to be launch-ready on Steam?

It depends on the revenue tier you're targeting: roughly 7,000 for a $10K-$249K launch, up to 100,000 or more for a seven-figure launch, directional industry-wide bands rather than a precise prediction for any one game. Separately, 7,000 also functions as the visibility floor, the rough point below which Steam's own discovery systems barely help regardless of which tier you're aiming for.

Is wishlist count enough to know if you're ready to launch?

No. Wishlist count tells you how big your audience is, not whether it will buy. A healthy conversion rate and steady wishlist velocity matter alongside count. A large count with a broken conversion rate is not actually launch-ready.

How often should you re-check launch readiness before locking a date?

At every major milestone (a Next Fest entry, a trailer drop, roughly 90 days out) rather than once. Readiness moves, a check from months earlier can be stale by the time a date actually locks.

Does a good store page matter for launch readiness, separate from wishlist count?

Yes. Store page conversion determines how much of your existing traffic and wishlist audience actually turns into a sale. A strong wishlist count sitting on a weak store page caps out below what the count alone would suggest.

Steam launch readiness checklist

The checklist

Wishlist count clears your tier minimum.Your tier minimum is the low end of the wishlist range for the revenue bracket you're aiming at: roughly 7,000 for a $10K-$249K launch, 30,000-50,000 for $250K-$999K, 100,000 or more for a seven-figure launch. These are directional, industry-wide bands, not a precise prediction for your specific game. Check your actual count against the tier you're targeting, not a generic number.
Wishlist count also clears the visibility floor. This is a separate, fixed threshold, roughly 7,000 wishlists, below which Steam's own discovery systems (like Popular Upcoming) barely help at all, regardless of which tier you're aiming for. See the readiness glossary for how this differs from your tier minimum.
Conversion rate isn't a red flag, if you can measure it yet. If you have enough sales data to calculate it (from a demo, early access, or a prior launch), check it against why wishlists convert below benchmark before locking a date on top of an unresolved problem.
Wishlist velocity is healthy, not flat. Wishlist velocity is how fast your count is growing, not the total itself. Gaining under roughly 3 wishlists a day organically is a caution sign; 10 or more a day heading into a major event is considered healthy. A flat velocity right before locking a date is worth investigating, not ignoring.
A Next Fest entry, if you're using one, already happened or is scheduled with time left after it. Entering Next Fest with fewer than roughly 500 wishlists gets little benefit from its usual velocity boost, so a low-count Next Fest entry isn't itself proof of readiness.
There's still time for one more push after locking. A date locked with zero runway left wastes the momentum a firm date is supposed to create. Leave room for a trailer drop, a review embargo, or a final creator push between announcement and release.
The store page itself converts well, separate from wishlist count. A good store page conversion rate matters on its own; a weak page caps what any amount of wishlist readiness can convert into sales.
Your genre's expectations are calibrated, not borrowed from a different genre. Hit rates vary enormously by genre. Compare your numbers against similar titles in your own genre, not an industry-wide average that doesn't apply to it.

How to use this checklist

Run it as a gate, not a scorecard. A studio clearing 6 of 8 items isn't "75% ready," the items that gate revenue (wishlist count, conversion rate) matter more than the items that gate polish (store page optimization). Treat a miss on either of the first two as a stop, not something to average away against the rest.

Re-run the checklist at each major milestone (a Next Fest entry, a trailer drop, 90 days out) rather than once. Readiness is a moving target until the date locks. A studio that passed the checklist at 6 months out can still slip below its tier minimum by 90 days out if growth stalled in between.

Immutable AI reads a studio's own store page, demo, and channel data automatically and ranks the single highest-impact action to take that week, so the checklist becomes a live status rather than a manual one-time pass.

Common mistakes when using this checklist

Checking wishlist count and stopping there.Count alone tells you the audience exists, not whether it will buy. Skipping the conversion-rate item is the most common way a "ready" studio still underperforms at launch.

Treating every item as equally weighted.A studio with a strong conversion rate and a wishlist count slightly under its tier minimum is in a better position than one with a huge count and a broken conversion rate. Don't average the checklist into one score.

Running it once and locking based on that snapshot. Growth can stall or accelerate between when the checklist passes and when the date actually locks. The closer to the lock date, the more recent the check needs to be.

Sources: Public Steam revenue-tier, visibility-floor, and Next Fest velocity benchmark data, as compiled in how-many-steam-wishlists-before-launch; Immutable practitioner guidance on wishlist velocity from why-are-my-steam-wishlists-not-growing.