Steamworks Documentation
Visibility on Steam

Overview

Prominent visibility of products on the front page of the Steam Store is a careful balancing act. We want to show products that customers are interested in buying and are going to be happy with, while also giving new games and software a chance to find their audience.

Ultimately, we aim to optimize for happy customers. There are definitely more changes and improvements to this process in the works, but what follows below is a look at how things currently work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkmAqBvUBOw

Early Access Launch Visibility

When your product launches in Steam Early Access, it will appear in a couple places in the Steam store. This is a great time to make sure that you are spreading word about your product through as many external channels as well to reach potential customers wherever they are. The amount of exposure your title gets on Steam will depend on how customers are responding to your product by purchasing, playing, reviewing, and other such factors.

Your game or software will appear in a couple of places:
  • In the "All New Releases" tab in the Early Access section.
  • If any people have your title on their wishlist, they may receive an e-mail notification of its release.

Additionally, your title may appear in some other places:
  • It may be recommended to specific users in various sections of the home page based on those users' preferences and tastes.
  • It may appear on the "New and Trending" section on the Early Access page if the title is doing well.
  • It can appear on 'top sellers' list on the store home page and on relevant genre and tag pages if it has achieved sales rank.

Releasing Out of Early Access

Once your title transitions out of Early Access, it is treated the same as a title releasing fully for the first time and the visibility guidelines below apply.

Full Release Launch Visibility

At launch, your game or software will appear in a couple of places:
  • The first thing that happens is your title will start appearing in the 'New Releases queue' and on the New Releases page for users. This provides a baseline of views against which to measure customer interest. See Baseline Visibility below for details.
  • Your title will also appear on the All New Releases list, which is linked from the Steam home page.
  • If any people have your title on their wishlist, they may receive an e-mail notification of its release.

Additionally, your title may appear in some other places:

It may be recommended to specific users in various sections of the home page based on those users' preferences and tastes.
It may appear on the "New and Trending" section on the home page if the title is doing well. Your title may be bumped off this list quickly if many other popular products are releasing at the same time.
It can appear on 'top sellers' list on the store home page and on relevant genre and tag pages if it has achieved sales rank.

Baseline visibility

As a baseline, your product will appear to customers in the 'New Release' queue when released fully. Here's how it works:

  • As soon as your product releases, it is added to a pool of titles that have also just released.
  • Each time a logged-in Steam user visits the 'New Releases Queue', the system generates a queue from that pool, prioritizing the titles that have the least amount of views since release.
  • Depending on each users' preferences, your title may not be included in a queue. Titles can be filtered out based on associated tags or the type of product it is.
  • When the user then clicks through their 'New Releases Queue', they will land on your store page and it counts as a view in our system.

Organic visibility

If your product is doing really well, it may get bumped up into the Main capsule on the front page.

Your title will also get additional, organic visibility along the way. Your title may appear on "New and Trending" lists on the front page or on genre or category pages. It can appear on various "Top Sellers" lists if achieved. It can appear on "Specials" sections if you are running a discount. And it will appear in friends' activity feeds as customers make purchases, share screenshots, earn achievements, and discuss the product. Your title might be recommended by Steam Curators or appear in the Discovery Queue.

Any visibility your title may have in these other places is in addition to the visibility generated through Launch Visibility and Update Visibility Rounds features.

Key Visibility Elements

Which things matter most in making your game more visible within the Steam store? Here are a few of the most important:

Players and Purchases Matter

Are people buying and playing your game? This is a strong signal to Steam that there is interest in your game and that Steam should try showing it to more players. For best results, make sure that players know your game is coming and are excited to purchase and play the game.

Language Matters

Players prefer to play games that they can understand. For this reason, Steam will be more likely to show your game to players that speak a language supported by your game. Translating your game into more languages will make your game accessible and enjoyable to more players. For more information on localization and languages, please see Localization and Languages documentation

Tags Matter

Steam categorizes games by using a tagging system. You'll need to apply tags to your game during your store page setup process. If you have an older game on Steam, you may want go back and go through the tagging wizard to make sure your game has complete set of tags to accurately describe the elements, themes, and genres of your game. For more on tags, please see Steam Tags documentation.

Update Visibility Rounds

When you make major updates to your application, add new content, release new DLC, or ship new features, is a great time to remind new and existing customers about your product. We've built a feature for doing exactly that.

With Update Visibility Rounds, we've dedicated space on the front page of the Steam store to highlighting products where the developer has a major update they would like to tell customers about. These appear to customers that have your game in their library or on their wishlist.

For more details, please see Update Visibility Rounds documentation.

Main Capsule Visibility


This area features games and software from a variety of sources and also allows for user-customization to exclude or include particular types of content. By default, the main capsule can include one or more popular new releases, top sellers, Early Access titles, personalized recommendations, software, or DLC for products the user has in their library. This section is driven by what players spend time and money on, rather than Valve curation. We want to show players what they are interested in. The main capsule is different for every customer. It’s based on games they own, games they play, games their friends play, top sellers, etc. You may see a certain game here but another friend of yours won’t see it.

Tracking Your Visibility

With a personalized and dynamic store, it’s hard to tell where your game might be showing up and how customers are finding their way to your product page.

To address this we’ve introduced Steam’s new traffic data analytics. With this data, you can see where your game is appearing, how many times it has been shown, and how those impressions have translated into visits to your product page.

Of course this data is all anonymous, but it should give you a good idea of where your game is appearing and how many customers are clicking on those placements to get to your product page.

To dive into your traffic data analytics, please visit the 'Marketing & Visibility' section for your product in the Steamworks website and click on the 'Traffic Breakdown' tab for details. You can also follow this link for a high-level overview of all traffic across all the games in your catalog: https://partner.steamgames.com/pub/navstatsoverview/

Visibility_Stats.jpg

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I use an Update Visibility Round for my DLC launch?
A. DLC items do not have their own visibility rounds the way that base games or software titles do. So when you launch a DLC that you want to promote through a visibility round, you will need to use one of your base application's rounds.

The way we suggest doing this is by posting an announcement in your community about your DLC launch, and then use an Update Visibility Round to highlight your game or software. You can use the short description to describe your DLC launch.

This way, new and existing customers will be taken to your base application page where they can learn about your product and also see any other DLC that is currently available for your product.

Q. When can I start using Update Visibility Rounds?
A. You must wait until after your initial launch visibility has concluded before you can start using Update Visibility Rounds. If you are in Early Access, you must wait two weeks after launch before starting an Update Round.

Q. How often can I use an Update Visibility Round?
A. There is no limit to how much time must be between the use of your Update Rounds. You may use them all immediately one after the other if you wish. However, you may want to consider the future plans for your game or software to anticipate future updates that you may want to save an update round for.

Q. Do I need to coordinate with a product update?
A. Yes, these appear in a section called "Recently Updated" and are intended for use when announcing major updates to your application such as new content, new DLC, or new features.

Q. How do I know where my game is showing up?
A. Steam traffic data analytics show you the specific areas (or 'feature') on each page in Steam where your game has been shown to someone, how many impressions have occurred in each placement, as well as where and how many times customers have clicked to get to your store page.

Q. How can I get my game to show up to more customers?
A. Steam automatically shows games to customers in different ways and many different places. The visibility of any given game on Steam is based on many factors, including how customers are reacting to that product, and who the potential audience is for that product. Not every customer is interested in every game, so Steam works to figure out who your game should be recommended to and who is most likely to purchase your game.

Q. Does this change how I release my game?
A. The release process for you is still the same, but now your game may be able to appear in more places throughout Steam. You focus on making an awesome game and describe it accurately to customers on your store page and Steam will work to show your game in appropriate places based on customers’ interests, preferences, and feedback.

Keep in mind that you still need to make sure you get word out about your game as you lead up to your release date. Get the community excited and build an audience. Put up a 'coming soon' page, and post announcements. Some customers may need to see your game dozens of times before it catches their attention.

Q. Can I pay for my game to show up to more customers?
A. Nope. You focus on making a compelling, interesting, and unique game, and Steam will work out the best places to feature your game based on customers’ interests, preferences, and feedback.