More than half of all Steam games rarely (if ever) get played

[Shawn Knight]

It’s no surprise that with more than 75 million active daily users, Steam is one of the most popular gaming platforms in the world. In addition to being incredibly easy to install and use, gamers often look forward to semi-annual Steam Sales to pick up a number of titles at a deep discount.

The only problem it seems is that many of the purchased games on Steam go unplayed.

According to a recent report from Ars Technica, 36.9 percent of registered games per user remain unplayed. I don’t mean they are played infrequently – I mean they’ve never once been loaded since purchase. Furthermore, 17 percent of games have only been played for less than an hour.

Combined, that’s more than 50 percent of a user’s games that get little or no attention at all – likely eating up a lot of hard drive space in the process.

You’re probably thinking that most of the non-played games were free-to-play titles but you’d be wrong. The publication found that virtually 100 percent of free-to-play games had been played at least once. So that means the games that have gone unplayed likely cost the user some money.

The publication used an automatic crawler to search through up to 90,000 public Steam user profiles. The profiles, which don’t include users that have elected to hide their status, show information about each player’s library of games and how often they’ve played them. It's certainly not the most scientific of studies but then again, the numbers don't lie.

How many unplayed Steam games do you have right now?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56413-more-than-half-of-all-steam-games-rarely-if-ever-get-played.html

 

[oldikes]

I think ive played less than half the games in my steam library.
And yes, I feel like a fool for buying them.

 

[Guest]

My Steam stats are hidden however I have played all my games at least once.

 

[GhostRyder]

This is why I have such few steam games, I mostly only buy on the sales if I feel I really want to play it. Though I have friends who end up buying hundreds of games and rarely even play a quarter of them.

 

[wastedkill]

I buy a lot of games but only play some of them, it doesnt matter if they dont get played tbh but like a lot of good games they get left behind where as terrible games like CoD games get played all the time which in fact they shouldnt be played at all!!!!

All the good games rarely get played :/

 

[Guest]

Steam sales : Hoarding for gamers
"omg this is so cheap, I need to get it....I may want to play it....one day.....someday....as soon as im done with all these other things in my life, yeah then I will have time to catch up with my list of steam games..."

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I've never bought anything from Steam but I have to have Steam installed in order to play some games which requires Steam in order to be be played. Any games I buy must be on a physical DVD/CD and they must be on sale or else I'm not interested.

 

[Spykezxp]

I have only 3 games on Steam that I have not played yet, and 2 of those I was given by a friend. I don't understand how anyone would want to build up a collection of games that they will possibly never get around to playing. When I buy a game, I do some research into the game to make sure that I will want to actually purchase it. Unlike some of my friends that have collections of hundreds that they have never played. Sounds like a waste of money to me.

 

[Guest]

This is why I have such few steam games, I mostly only buy on the sales if I feel I really want to play it.

You are to strong, okey!

 

[treeski]

I don't know what my ratio is off hand, but I know I've picked up a couple Humble Bundles just for one game, and haven't touched the rest.

 

[DSoS]

I have 350 games and played maybe 20% for at least 1 hour or more.

I get most of the games from Humble Bundle, Indie Gala, etc. I think I've bought 15, if that, direct from Steam.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Close to half not yet played. Grabbed on sale and to be played one day. Seemed like a savings at the time. No waste of hard drive as it sits in the Steam Cloud (a/k/a Sauna).

 

[theBest11778]

I have about 300 games on steam. I'd say 10% I haven't played through Steam, but played them on Xbox or maybe played them before (older pc games,) and "may" wish to play them again down the road. Steam at least makes sure older titles are compatible with newer PCs. Some games I bought for a few bucks, and just didn't like so never touched them again, but there's a good 50% that get played through every few years. Games like Skyrim/Fallout/Dragon Age maybe every 5 years due to time consumption.

 

[LNCPapa]

Here's my list - http://steamcommunity.com/id/lncpapa/games/?tab=all&sort=playtime
14% of my games have 1 hour or more of playtime - that's 300 games and 300 DLC most of which I've never touched.

I also have an additional 75 games that have been played from .1 to .9 hours. That means that I've only ever played 39% of the Steam games I own. I fully admit that I'm a digital packrat and a game hoarder. I was the same way when I used to buy physical media but that's why I made the move to Steam only titles when possible. Steam has helped me keep my computer room clean.

 

[Pinkie Pie]

I have over 200 games in my Steam account now but I got most of them for free through giveaway or rewards sites and most of the rest through $1 humble bundles. Out of all of them I've still probably only played a dozen. Who has the time anymore?

 

[Burty117]

I'm also guilty of this... You know what?! I'm going to do it, I'm going to go through my library now and install any game I have less than 6 hours on and play it! I have 98 games and only 19 have I actually played xD

Here's my list - http://steamcommunity.com/id/lncpapa/games/?tab=all&sort=playtime

I've almost got the same play time on Borderlands 2 as you xD

Mine - http://steamcommunity.com/id/burty117/games?tab=all

 

[Sniped_Ash]

I have only 3 games on Steam that I have not played yet, and 2 of those I was given by a friend. I don't understand how anyone would want to build up a collection of games that they will possibly never get around to playing. When I buy a game, I do some research into the game to make sure that I will want to actually purchase it. Unlike some of my friends that have collections of hundreds that they have never played. Sounds like a waste of money to me.

I don't think anyone wants to have the Steam list of shame, but it's so easy to snag a bunch of new-ish AAA games that are on sale for $5-10, but never get around to playing them. If you also have a few time-sink games that you like keep going back to (WoW, Diablo 3, Civ V for me) suddenly there's no time to play those Steam sale games.

Also if something is really cheap and has been getting a lot of buzz, I might get it even if it's not in my wheelhouse. The icon for The Swapper has been staring at me from my desktop for quite some time...

 

[TomSEA]

"Combined, that’s more than 50 percent of a user’s games that get little or no attention at all – likely eating up a lot of hard drive space in the process."

Well yeah - if you decide to install them. I currently have maybe 4-5 of my Steam games installed, but have around 160 games total.

Like many others, I've picked up more games than normal due to Humble and other package sales. That probably accounts for 20% of my games right there. Now having said that, I also do snap up a lot of games during the Steam sales. It's hard to pass up a "I always wanted to try that" game when it's going for five bucks or less.

One area where I buck the trend is I almost always finish a game I start. If I had to guess, I'd say 95% of what I start, I finish.

I don't consider having more games than I can play a vice. It's a hobby. If I get to them, fine. If I don't, fine. There are a lot worse things I could be spending my money on and at a minimum, I'm supporting the gaming industry.

 

[yukka]

I have 250 games and a full time job. This article isn't news to me

 

[thegroveman]

It amazes me that people laud the savings that the Steam platform provides, then don't play its games. You're not saving money if you buy a bunch of product you don't use, even if it's on sale.

 

[LNCPapa]

I don't consider having more games than I can play a vice. It's a hobby. If I get to them, fine. If I don't, fine. There are a lot worse things I could be spending my money on and at a minimum, I'm supporting the gaming industry.

This - PC gaming needs to be supported or it'll fall off to console only development.

 

[veLa]

The games I haven't played are usually ones that came as a package with other games.

 

[Guest]

Just to notice, Steam did not always have the "hours played" feature, some of my old games simply don't have it because I played them many years ago. And some old games I don't run through Steam, but just take their files and run through ScummVM or Doxbox manually. This would create a little inaccuracy in the testing. Another thing, a game that was "NEVER" played might have been bought just a few weeks ago, it doesn't mean it's lying there for ages. Quite possible that people buy games on sales and then play them throughout the year. This statistics should be gathered before, after and in the middle of sales to see the percentage of unplayed games go higher and lower.

 

[spectrenad]

Out of 87 steam games, I haven't played maybe 50. They mostly come from bundles, or from ridiculously cheap sales. I'll prob play some of them this summer, but right now, I'm too busy to enjoy all of these title xD

 

[jUsTdOiT_bd]

Me going to say who r u . my steam my money my game its on me what I going to do with my game...u don't pay for my game. I pay for my game so..if I play thats up to me if I don't play thats also up to me I love u steam ^_^