Steam users spent $19 billion on games that have never been launched

We all have Steam games that we have never launched in many years. They were bought as part of bundles, or at big sales, etc. Tech4Gamers claims that the total value of such money spent on icons for all Steam players is almost $19 billion.

Of course, there is some truth in these words. For example, I’ve only ever launched 2,101 of the 2,755 games I have on Steam (the percentage is much worse on EGS, but I paid almost no money there), which means that I’ve never even tried almost 25% of Steam games. But the manual filter in the library gives you only 591 unplayed games, not 654 like the auto-calculator, plus soundtracks, videos, programs, etc.

The “average hospital temperature” is even higher, with many players having never launched 50 percent or more of their games. Collecting games on Steam has long since turned into more of a collecting of icons. On the other hand, the average Steam account has fewer games than mine, with a bunch of pre-releases, projects from contests, etc.

PCGamesN believes that there are $1.9 billion worth of unplayed games on open Steam accounts at current prices and suggests multiplying this figure by 10, as if there are 10 times more closed accounts on the service that do not provide statistics than open ones. That is, we get a total of $19 billion spent on icons alone. However, this seems a bit dubious, as Steam is also one of the world’s largest social networks of players. For example, on Sunday, June 23, 2024, Steam online had 36 million players at the same time, so why would they hide information about themselves that they can be proud of?

Of course, the problem of games that no one plays exists, but why spend your own money is a matter of personal choice, whether on FPV drones, games, or icons in the Steam library. By the way, you will be able to add to your collection soon, as the Big Steam Summer Sale will take place on June 27 – July 11, 2024.

You can calculate the number of Steam games you’ve never played using this calculator (of course, your account must be open). At the same time, you will find out the approximate cost of your library in current prices with discounts.

What do you think about spontaneous game purchases on Steam? It seems to be a kind of shopaholism, which sometimes helps to maintain mental health.