Scope
Plain-language definitions of the terms used to judge whether a Steam game is ready to launch, the same terms used throughout how many wishlists do you need on Steam. Each entry says what the term means and gives one real number as an example, not just the definition.
The terms
- Wishlist count
- How many people have wishlisted your game on Steam, as a running total. This is the plainest number in launch readiness, but on its own it doesn't say whether those people will actually buy the game. Example: a game with 12,000 wishlists has a wishlist count of 12,000.
- Revenue tier
- A rough bracket for how much money a launch is likely to make, based on wishlist count. Three tiers, drawn from public Steam benchmark data as a directional, industry-wide range, not a precise prediction for any single game: under 7,000 wishlists typically accompanies a $10K-$249K launch; 30,000-50,000 wishlists typically accompanies a $250K-$999K launch; 100,000 or more wishlists typically accompanies a seven-figure launch. Example: a game sitting at 35,000 wishlists is inside the $250K-$999K tier's range, but its actual result still depends on genre, price, and conversion rate, not the wishlist count alone.
- Tier minimum
- The low end of the wishlist-count range for the revenue tier you're aiming at. Not the same thing as the visibility floor below (a different, lower number that applies to every game regardless of tier). Example: if you're aiming for the $250K-$999K tier, your tier minimum is 30,000 wishlists, the bottom of that tier's 30,000-50,000 range.
- Visibility floor
- The wishlist count below which Steam's own discovery systems, mainly Popular Upcoming (defined below), barely help at all. Roughly 7,000 wishlists, regardless of which revenue tier you're aiming for. A game under this number is relying almost entirely on its own marketing to reach players; a game over it starts getting some help from Steam itself. Example: a game at 4,000 wishlists is below the visibility floor and gets little organic push from Steam; the same game at 8,000 has cleared it.
- Popular Upcoming
- A section of the Steam store that surfaces games not yet released to browsing players. Getting shown here is one of the main ways Steam helps an unreleased game get discovered, and it's gated by the visibility floor above.
- Conversion rate
- The share of your wishlists that turn into a sale, usually measured in the first week after launch. Benchmarks vary by launch size: around 15% for launches with 25,000 or more wishlists, closer to 17% for smaller launches, with a conservative floor near 10% for games priced above $10. Example: a launch with 40,000 wishlists converting at 15% sells roughly 6,000 copies in week one.
- Wishlist velocity
- How fast your wishlist count is growing, measured per day or per week, as opposed to the total count itself. Organic velocity (growth with no ad spend behind it) under roughly 3 wishlists a day is a caution sign; 10 or more a day heading into a major event is considered healthy. Example: a game gaining 2 wishlists a day for three weeks straight has low velocity, even if its total count still looks reasonable.
- Next Fest boost
- The temporary jump in wishlist velocity a game typically gets from taking part in Steam Next Fest, a recurring platform-wide demo event. Documented at 3x to 10x normal velocity during the event itself. A game entering with fewer than roughly 500 wishlists usually sees little benefit, since there isn't enough of an existing audience for the event to amplify. Example: a game gaining 5 wishlists a day normally might see 15-50 a day during Next Fest.
- Follower-to-wishlist estimate
- A rough conversion factor, 9.6x to 12x, used to guess at a game's wishlist count from its public follower count, since Steam doesn't show real wishlist totals for games you don't own. This is always a guessed range, never a substitute for your own real wishlist count on your own game. Example: a game with 1,000 public followers can be estimated at roughly 9,600 to 12,000 wishlists.
How these terms relate to each other
Wishlist count and wishlist velocity describe the same underlying data at two different speeds: count is the running total, velocity is how fast that total is currently climbing. A game can have a healthy count and a stalled velocity at the same time, which looks fine on the surface but signals a real slowdown underneath.
Revenue tier and visibility floor both use wishlist-count thresholds, but they answer different questions. Revenue tier estimates what a launch will earn. Visibility floor determines whether Steam's own systems help surface the game at all. A game can clear the visibility floor (7,000+ wishlists) while still being nowhere near its revenue tier's minimum (say, 30,000 for the $250K-$999K tier).
Conversion rate sits downstream of the count-based terms: it's the number that decides what a given wishlist count actually turns into on release day, which is why it matters even for a game that has already cleared its tier minimum.
Terms this glossary keeps separate on purpose
Tier minimum and visibility floor are not the same number, even though both are called thresholds. Tier minimum changes depending on which revenue tier you're aiming for (30,000 for one tier, 100,000 for another). Visibility floor is fixed at roughly 7,000 regardless of tier, because it's about whether Steam's algorithm helps at all, not about how much money you'll make. Calling both "the floor" is exactly the kind of mix-up this glossary exists to prevent.
Wishlist count and follower count are not interchangeable. Wishlist count is the real purchase-intent number for your own game. Follower count is a public proxy used only when a real wishlist count isn't visible (checking a competitor's game, for instance), converted at a wide 9.6x-to-12x range that should never be presented as a real number.
Sources: Public Steam revenue-tier, visibility-floor, and Next Fest velocity benchmark data, as compiled in how many wishlists do you need on Steam; the public follower-to-wishlist estimation range from Immutable's Steam data reference; Immutable practitioner guidance on wishlist velocity thresholds from why are my Steam wishlists not growing.
