Steam 101: From First Account to First Year of Sales (A Guide for Indie Developers)

1. Step one: Steamworks account

Before you start uploading builds, you must complete the Steamworks registration process.

• Costs: Steam charges a so-called Product Submission Fee ($100) for each game you wish to publish. This amount is refunded to you once the game generates its first $1,000 in sales.
• Administration: Be prepared to sign contracts digitally and provide tax information. Therefore, it is best to first set up a flat-rate business or an LLC and open a business bank account so that everything is ready for the full registration process. Do not use a personal bank account, as income is taxed at a much higher rate on larger amounts in that case.
• Timeframe: The registration process itself isn’t long, but it is a prerequisite for everything else. The sooner you finish the paperwork, the sooner you can launch the game page—and it is the page that collects wishlists.

2. Steam page: capsules and tags determine everything else

This is the part most often rushed, yet mistakes here come at the highest cost. Before you even begin your marketing efforts, the page must be set up correctly—because it is what the algorithm “reads” and what the player sees.

Capsule art is the most important single asset you will create

The capsule (the game’s cover image) is the only thing standing between your game and a click. If no one clicks, there are no visits, no wishlists, and no sales—regardless of how good the game is.

The key problem is that almost everyone designs capsules at full resolution, yet they are displayed as thumbnails. On the Popular Upcoming list, in search results, and in the Discovery Queue, your small capsule is displayed at a width of only around a hundred pixels. Anything that doesn’t survive that downscaling represents wasted space.

Practical rules:

• Design at the thumbnail size, not at full scale. Open the image at a width of 120 px and see if anything is discernible. If not, start over.
• A single character, strong contrast, a color that doesn’t blend into the surroundings. If all games in your genre use dark blue and orange, your capsule shouldn’t be dark blue and orange.
• Little to no text, aside from the headline—and the headline must be legible in the thumbnail, occupying about 30% of the capsule’s surface area.
• The competition test: take a screenshot of the Steam list for your genre, insert your capsule among the competition, and see where your eye is drawn first. If it’s not your game, you have your answer.

Tags define the “neighborhood” where your game will live

Tags are the way Steam knows who to show your game to. They directly feed the Discovery Queue, the More Like This section and search results.

• Make use of all 20 slots. An empty slot represents missed visibility with absolutely no downside.
• Order matters—the first few tags carry the most weight. That is where the most precise descriptions of your game should go.
• The specific beats the generic. “Indie,” “Adventure,” “Singleplayer,” and “Atmospheric” describe half of Steam and don’t put you in front of anyone in particular. “Tavern Management,” “Base Building,” “Cozy,” and “Psychological Horror”—these are the tags that connect you with people who are actually looking for that kind of game.

Can a mistake be fixed? Yes, tags can be changed at any time. But the logic is this: the initial traffic Steam sends to your page serves as a test. If it sends that traffic to the wrong audience, those people won’t wishlist the game; the algorithm then concludes that the game isn’t performing well and reduces further traffic. That is why it is better to get it right the first time than to try to recover later.

Keep in mind that players add tags to your game themselves. Your tags are a starting point, but the community has an influence.

When should you launch the page? As early as possible.

Valve explicitly states in its documentation that there is no significant downside to having a page live well before the release date. The practical goal: keep the page active for at least a year before launch. Not because it will generate numbers on its own, but because doing so opens the door to all the festivals taking place during that year—and festivals are the cheapest source of wishlists available to an indie developer.

3. Pre-launch marketing: wishlists are the only currency that counts.

Your sales on the first day depend directly on what you have been doing for months leading up to it.

How many wishlists are enough?

There is no official figure released by Valve, but there is a fairly solid community consensus, largely based on data collected over the years by Chris Zukowski at howtomarketagame.com:

• Historically, around 7,000 wishlists was the threshold at which games began to appear on the Popular Upcoming list. Note: In mid-2026, Valve announced that they had raised this threshold, so today this figure should be viewed as a lower bound rather than a target.
• 10,000+ is the figure at which a launch is considered healthy.
• 25,000+ is a seriously strong start.

More important than the absolute figure is the growth rate just before the release—the algorithm looks at both the total number and the growth over the last seven days.

And even more importantly: the genre changes the equation. Wishlist conversion rates differ between a management/simulation game and a 2D platformer. If you are making a game in a genre the Steam audience is actively seeking out, you can get by with less. If you are creating something that is a harder sell, you need more.

If you are stuck at around 3,000 wishlists after six months of genuine effort, delaying the release likely won’t solve the problem—the issue lies in the offering, not the timing. If you are at 6,000 and just need a month or two of focused work, a delay is worth it.

Trailer from day one

Don’t wait until the game is finished to have a trailer. A large number of people won’t even consider adding the game to their wishlist if they don’t see any video. The trailer doesn’t have to be perfect—it just has to exist, and it must start with gameplay within the first few seconds.

Demo: when and whether on a separate page

A demo is one of the most powerful tools you have today, but only if it is released at the right moment.

Timing. Steam requires you to submit the demo for review no later than two weeks before the start of Next Fest (or four weeks if you want it released prior to the Press Preview). In practice, this means the demo should be functionally complete about eight weeks in advance, leaving the final two weeks for polishing, setting up the store page, and communicating with creators—not for fixing bugs.

There are divided opinions on whether to release the demo months in advance or just before the festival itself.

Argument for early release: You get feedback, fix the game, and collect reviews before you get in front of the biggest audience.

An argument for a later release: Steam treats a fresh demo as a highlight-worthy event, so you don’t want to waste that “signal of newness” when no one is watching. My advice is a compromise: release the demo a few weeks before the festival—early enough to gather initial feedback, but not so early that the demo has already lost its buzz by the time the festival arrives.

A separate page for the demo – yes or no? As of 2024, Steam lets demos have their own page, which appears in search results, free-to-play lists, and the New & Trending section. Here’s the catch:

• If you include a separate page, players can leave reviews for the demo, and those reviews are displayed just like those for any free game. A poor score can filter you out of certain lists, while a good score works in your favor.
• If you don’t include a separate page, reviews for the demo won’t display—the demo remains just a button on the full game’s page.

Practically speaking, if you believe in the quality of the demo and it is stable, a dedicated page provides extra visibility and social proof. However, if the demo isn’t quite ready or you are rushing to meet a deadline, avoid the risk of a negative score hanging over the game.

And one more thing: don’t take down the demo after the festival. A demo that remains live continues to drive traffic to the game’s page for months.

Localization

Translating into as many languages ​​as possible dramatically increases visibility and influences the number and tone of post-release reviews. German, Italian, French, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, Japanese, Turkish, Russian and Portuguese (Brazilian, due to South America) have the greatest impact—though other languages ​​are certainly beneficial as well.

At what stage is the language added to the page? This is a common source of confusion, so let’s break it down:

• The list of supported languages ​​on the page should reflect what the player actually gets. It is information for the customer, not a planning field.
• In practice, many developers add the languages ​​they plan to support early on, as this allows the game to appear in filtered searches and for users who have Steam set to that language; consequently, wishlists begin to accumulate from those regions even before the translation is complete. The list can always be shortened later if the localization does not go ahead.
• The risk is real: if the game launches without the language you announced, early reviews will make you pay for it—and a negative score in the opening days costs far more than a few missed wishlist additions.

My compromise: add the languages ​​you are truly willing to invest in early on, rather than a whole list “just in case.” If you aren’t sure you’ll have the time, at least translate the text on the Steam page itself (the description and capsule text)—it’s inexpensive, boosts conversion and doesn’t promise anything you can’t deliver.

Steam Next Fest

This is your most powerful free tool, but you can only use it once per game—Steam does not allow re-entry.

• Sign up for the final Next Fest before the game’s actual release. The reason is that thousands of games register for Next Fest, and to secure a better position via the algorithm, you need an existing foundation to build upon. No one knows the exact formula Steam uses to prioritize games, but wishlists definitely play a role—especially the trend in wishlists leading up to the festival itself.
• Entering with fewer than a thousand wishlists usually means the festival buries you, and you’ve used up your only chance.
• Pre-festival marketing is the deciding factor. The games that perform best are those that conducted outreach to creators and the community 4–6 weeks in advance. The festival amplifies what you already have; if you have nothing, there is nothing to amplify.
• Consider smaller festivals as well. There are dozens of them each year; the audience is more focused and the competition is lower, allowing you to save Next Fest for the moment when your demo is truly ready. Chris Zukowski maintains a list at howtomarketagame.com/festivals and on his Discord server.

4. Realistic expectations: earnings are not the number of copies × price.

A common mistake beginners make comes down to simple math. In reality, your earnings (net revenue) are “squeezed” through several layers:

1. Steam Cut (30%): Valve takes a fixed percentage of every sale.
2. Regional pricing: A game that costs $20 in the US costs significantly less in Turkey or Argentina. The average price per copy will often be 30–40% lower than your “full” price.
3. Refunds and taxes: Expect about 5–10% of people to request a refund, and for the state to take its share via VAT.
4. Launch discount: Almost every game is released with a 10–15% discount. The reason why is explained in Chapter 6.
5. Withholding tax: Since Serbia and the US do not have a double taxation avoidance treaty, Valve is required to pay a 30% tax on our behalf for every copy sold to a US customer. I have often heard people get confused about this, so let me clarify: the tax applies only to revenue from sales in the US. In reality, about 20% of copies sold are to US customers, meaning the effective withholding tax is 30% of that 20%—or approximately 6%. (Check the current situation with an accountant, as tax regulations change.)

Example: if a game costs $20, the calculation goes like this:

$20 × 0.7 (Steam) × 0.7 (regional pricing) × 0.8 (launch discount) × 0.95 (refunds) × 0.94 (withholding tax) ≈ $7

From that $7, you still need to deduct local taxes to arrive at the final amount. (Note: The 0.8 factor applies only to the launch discount period, so this represents the pessimistic end of the range, typical of the first week.)

Although this sounds scary, it is better to have realistic expectations and scale development costs accordingly. A game that reaches 50,000 wishlists can realistically expect 25,000 copies sold in the first month, which is already a serious financial success.

5. Formula for projecting success

Although every game is different, there are “golden rules” in the indie industry that often prove accurate for budget planning:

• First month: the earnings from the first week multiplied by 1.5 usually yield the sales result for the first month.
• First Year: First month earnings multiplied by 3.5 is a standard projection for what a game will earn in its first year on the platform.
• Wishlist-to-sales conversion: this varies significantly from game to game, but on average, 25–50% of total wishlists translate into sales during the first year. (For the first week, that percentage is considerably lower, usually 10–20%.) It does not mean that everyone who bought the game had previously wishlisted it—which is why the variation is so high.

6. Discount strategy: a long-term game

Sales on Steam are a marathon, not a sprint.

Why are games released at a discount in the first place?

A launch discount does three things: it drives initial purchases during the first few hours (and early sales are the strongest signal to the algorithm), helps you get into the New & Trending section, and gives people with the game on their wishlists a reason to buy now rather than “sometime later.” The first 24–48 hours determine how much Steam will continue to promote your game, which is why most developers opt for a 10–15% discount.

Cooldown is a rule that people often overlook

• You cannot offer a discount 30 days after the game’s release. The only exception is the launch discount, which must be set up before the release date—it is too late afterwards.
• The launch discount lasts for 7 to 14 days, and you choose the duration yourself.
• A period of 30 days must elapse between two discounts, calculated from the end of one to the start of the next.
• Seasonal sales are exempt from that rule—you can offer a discount less than a month before or after a seasonal sale and still participate in it.
• You cannot offer a discount 30 days after a price increase in any currency. There are no exceptions to this.

A practical consequence: the discount schedule is planned in reverse. If you want to participate in a seasonal sale or a festival, check when your previous discount expires before setting it up in the first place. This is the most common way indie developers accidentally miss out on a sale they had been waiting months for.

Seasonal sales offer more than you think

Although periodic discounts are short-lived, they often account for 20–30% of your total annual revenue. Don’t skip them! The four major seasonal sales each year are the most reliable source of income you have after the first month, and they are exempt from the cooldown rule—there is no reason to miss a single one.

Graduated discounts

Don’t offer a 50% discount three months after the game’s release. Start with 10–15% and gradually increase the percentage over the course of the year. Players remember the lowest price point they’ve seen and wait for it to return. If you drop to half-price too quickly, you get stuck there.

Steam’s “Big Three” – when and why to use each one

These are the featured offer formats that Valve displays on the front page:

• Daily Deal – the shortest option (24 hours), delivering a sharp, concentrated spike. It is most useful when you want a strong surge in a short timeframe—for example, to coincide with the release of a major update or DLC. It is the easiest to obtain of the three options, available at most once a year.
• Midweek Madness – a solid boost in the middle of the work week. A smaller peak but a longer tail; good for periods when there are no major sales and you need to keep the game in circulation. Harder to secure than a Daily Deal.
• Weekend Deal – in my experience, the best format. It aligns with the days when the platform has the most users and generates the highest overall traffic and sales, yet it is nearly impossible to secure unless the game’s sales performance is truly outstanding.

Important: Steam does not offer these promotions to you automatically. You have to request them via Steamworks, and whether you get a promotion (and which one) depends on the game’s performance—sales, reviews and player activity. In other words, this is not a tool available to you from day one; access is earned through results. Apply well in advance, as the schedule fills up.

Launching on Steam is the beginning of the work, not the end. Good luck to all my fellow “miners,” and see you on the leaderboards!

Also, on September 30th, I will participate in DevGAMM FTW! at the Indie Developers From Serbia panel, so come along and let’s chat in person! 🙂