The headline number
Wishlist-to-player conversion benchmarks have moved from approximately 20% in 2018 to 5–10% across the industry in 2026. The shift is structural rather than cyclical: more games launch every year, players wishlist earlier and more broadly, and the conversion window at launch needs more nurturing than it did five years ago.
The implication for a launching studio is significant. A game that plans against the older 20% number can find its launch revenue comes in well below forecast. A 100,000-wishlist title expecting 20,000 buyers may instead see 5,000 to 10,000.
Where the second stage of the funnel matters most
The launch funnel has two stages. Stage one is generating interest: wishlists, pre-registrations, organic traffic, ads, influencer mentions, and content. Stage two is converting interest into purchase at launch.
Most studios put the majority of their marketing energy into stage one because wishlist counts are highly visible and platforms reward momentum there. Stage two, the 30 days before launch and the launch week itself, often gets less dedicated attention, and that is where the largest conversion gains are now sitting.
The wishlist is a powerful intent signal, but on its own it is a single touchpoint. Pairing it with email, Discord, or another direct channel gives the studio a way to keep nurturing each interested player all the way through launch day.
What a captured-and-activated funnel looks like
The studios that consistently outperform wishlist-only baselines run the same audience through a captured-and-activated funnel: the wishlist sits alongside email and Discord, with segmentation, paired with a 30-day pre-launch activation sequence. Across our customer base, this approach produces a significant uplift in wishlist-to-player conversion versus relying on the wishlist alone.
The mechanism is straightforward. The studio captures email and Discord at the same moment the player wishlists, with no impact on the wishlist itself. From that point, the activation system can send the right message at the right time: a 30-day countdown, a 21-day calendar add, a launch-day reminder, and a post-launch review request for buyers or a reactivation message for those who have not yet purchased.
How to apply this to your launch
Three concrete moves. First, treat every wishlist click as a moment to also capture email and Discord, complementing rather than replacing the existing wishlist flow. Second, segment that audience before launch (high-spend propensity, geo, genre interest) so the 30-day sequence is personalised. Third, run the activation sequence as a structured campaign, not a single blast.
Immutable's conversion funnel and activation engine are how Ubisoft, NetMarble, and 700+ other games apply this in practice, sitting alongside their existing wishlist and pre-registration channels.
Sources: Industry benchmarks aggregated from publisher conversations and platform analytics, 2018–2026. Customer uplift measured against pre-campaign control segments and reported in aggregate.
