Valve’s Steam Data Provides Insights into PC Gaming
Valve’s Steam is one of the most popular platforms for PC gaming, so there’s a wealth of data on there about games and user preferences. And one new indie game dev has decided to compile that.
Data Scraping and Analysis
“Driven by curiosity and a passion for exploring data and game development,” the creator of the video below scraped Steam’s whole catalogue using scripts that gathered data ranging from the titles of games to tags, prices, ratings, review counts, and release dates.
Results and Insights
The resulting data can be used to glean insights on the highest-rated games, the most commonly used words in titles, and potentially underused combinations of genres. It could help research the perfect new game, be it for PC or for the best games consoles.
Top-Rated Games and Most Common Words
The data shows that the most-used words in game titles are ‘VR,’ ‘simulator,’ ‘world,’ ‘space,’ ‘dungeon,’ ‘game,’ ‘adventure,’ and ‘puzzle’. While this gives an insight into what developers think works, it could also provide words to steer clear of if you want a unique title.
Ratings and Genres
In terms of ratings, the indie game Terraria is the top-rated game on Steam. Moreover, around half of the games in the top 50 are indies. Interestingly, only 12 games have an overwhelmingly negative score. Some of the worst-rated games were accused of misleading or scamming players.
As for the potential for genre combinations, the dev found that apparently only one title on Steam blends farming simulation and battle royale mechanics. Who would have known?! Other combinations with largely unexplored potential include board game and platformer, with just ten games on the platform, and card game and rhythm, reflected in just five. And there are only four fighting games with a romantic theme.
Additional Insights
The developer continued with more insights in the comments on YouTube, offering observations on the most successful publishers, differences in the popularity of different genres between indie and AAA games, and even how a game’s review score corresponds with price.
Conclusion
The data compiled by the indie game dev provides valuable insights into the world of PC gaming on Steam. From the most commonly used words in game titles to the potential for underused genre combinations, this data can be used to inform game development and marketing strategies.
FAQs
Q: What kind of data was scraped from Steam?
A: The data scraped from Steam included game titles, tags, prices, ratings, review counts, and release dates.
Q: How many data points were compiled?
A: The data compiled by the indie game dev includes around 8 million data points covering 140,000 games, each with 40 attributes.
Q: What are some of the most common words used in game titles?
A: The most-used words in game titles are ‘VR,’ ‘simulator,’ ‘world,’ ‘space,’ ‘dungeon,’ ‘game,’ ‘adventure,’ and ‘puzzle’.
Q: What is the top-rated game on Steam?
A: The top-rated game on Steam is the indie game Terraria.
Q: How many games have an overwhelmingly negative score?
A: Only 12 games have an overwhelmingly negative score.
