Plus: The Hottest Pre-release Steam Tags?

This analysis examines the relationship between Steam tags and pre-release consumer interest, utilizing a proprietary "Hype score" to measure anticipation for unreleased titles. By aggregating data across 432 Steam tags, the research identifies which genres and themes currently drive the highest levels of player engagement before a game even reaches the market.

The findings reveal that while broad tags like Action and Adventure have the highest total Hype scores due to the sheer volume of games using them, median Hype scores provide a more accurate reflection of niche profitability and trend strength. When filtering for tags with at least five upcoming games, the most "potent" tags include Warhammer 40k, Kickstarter, and Sequel, which boast median scores 10 to 50 times higher than the platform average. Within standard gameplay genres, 4X, Colony Sim, City Builder, Management, Farming Sim, and Open World Survival Craft emerge as the most anticipated categories.

Beyond tag analysis, the data covers current market performance across Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and the Epic Games Store for early February 2022. Notable performance metrics include Dying Light 2 achieving 240,000 concurrent users on Steam at launch and the continued dominance of budget-priced titles like Vampire Survivors. The scope is global but focuses heavily on U.S. download charts for consoles. Methodology relies on daily updates of Steam follower counts, review-to-sales ratios, and concurrent player data to track both long-term trends and short-term rank changes in the PC and console ecosystem.