Steam Next Fest continues to boost engagement and sales for most games (on Steam) in 2021

[AshenOne]

We're excited to share some new analysis on the impact of 2020 and 2021 Next Fest participation with regard to wishlisting and sales rates.

The primary goal of Steam Next fest is to connect players with upcoming games they might be interested in, while helping developers expose their future release to more potential fans. The event gives players the chance to experience these games in action, while allowing devs to gather real-time feedback along the way. Of course we want to make sure the series of events are working as intended and producing meaningful results for players and developers.

We first analyzed the effects of Next Fest back in August when we published this report that covered the first two events of 2020. In the time since, we've been able to analyze all three 2021 editions of Next Fest, and the results are even more positive.

(Note: This graph shows analysis of all five editions of Next Fest and includes all games regardless of whether they have released yet at the time of this writing. This is subtly different from our previous analysis in August, which only included released games)

As you see above, there is a significant shift in 2021: Compared to 2020 editions, games with demos in the most recent three Steam Next Fest are getting an even bigger increase in the amount of wishlists added. There are likely a number of factors at play that might have caused that, as we've iterated a lot on the format of the fest. But likely the biggest factor was a change to our rules: Starting with Feb '21 edition, we changed the participation rules to limit developers to only one fest per year. This might mean that developers wait longer to participate and only do so when they have a more polished game to present that converts better.

Let's dig into some details of how all five editions of Next Fest has performed overall thus far:

The participating games saw a median increase in wishlists of over 14X
Among 2020 and 2021 Next Fest participants, the median game saw daily wishlist additions jump 1,364% during the fest, compared to the two weeks leading up to the event.

Wishlisting rate increases were higher than 1,364% for half of participating games, while 46% saw a smaller increase, and 4% experienced a decrease in their rate of wishlist additions.

Wishlisting rates were still up after the event
The rate of wishlisting remained elevated for the majority of games even after Next Fest ended, with the median game seeing a 26% increase in daily wishlist additions in the three weeks following Next Fest compared with the two weeks prior to the event.

This increase in wishlist additions resulted in more sales
To study Next Fest's impact on sales, we tracked whether Next Fest wishlist additions were converting to sales among the games that have been released since participating in the fest. The median released game saw
an increase of 500% in "converting wishlists" made during Next Fest compared to converting wishlist additions made in the two weeks leading to Next Fest.

About Steam Next Fest
The first Steam Next Fest ran in the summer of 2020 as a way to offer playable demos to fans in the absence of physical events such as E3. We've since run the event four more times as an opportunity for devs to build an audience for their upcoming games. Each fest has comprised hundreds of games offering demos for players to download and try. The fests have also provided an opportunity for devs to feature scheduled livestreams and connect with players over the course of the multi-day event.

Source: Steamworks Development Group Announcement

 

[Jaded Alyx]

An event based around giving people the opportunity to play an early demo of a game and wishlist it at the same time (usually from within the game) must be one of the best ways to sell people on upcoming indie games.

 

[AshenOne]

An event based around giving people the opportunity to play an early demo of a game and wishlist it at the same time (usually from within the game) must be one of the best ways to sell people on upcoming indie games.

Might not be exactly the same thing but i remember the time when XBLA was a thing on Xbox 360 and a lot of games had demos! Demos are just a great thing for the end user where they don't need to take the plunge and refund a game if they don't like it when they can just Demo it.