How the Steam algorithm works: what Valve says counts (and what doesn't)

"The algorithm" gets blamed for a lot of quiet launches. The good news is that Valve has written down, in its Steamworks documentation, what does and does not affect a game's visibility on Steam. Some of it surprises people: store page traffic does not count, your conversion rate does not count, and wishlists mostly do not count either.

This post sums up what Valve says, what that means for an indie game before and after launch, and the few things you can control. Where we quote community estimates instead of Valve, we say so.

The short version

Steam is not one algorithm. It is a set of personalised lists (the home page, the main capsule, New and Trending, Top Sellers, tag pages, the Discovery Queue and more), and each player sees a different store. According to Valve's Visibility on Steam docs, the store is trying to show games that players will buy and be happy with, and the main signals are:

• Players and purchases. Valve calls people buying and playing your game "a strong signal" that Steam should show it to more players.
• Language. Steam is more likely to show your game to players who speak a language it supports.
• Tags. Tags decide which players, tag pages and similar-game lists you are matched to.

And these are the things Valve says are not a factor in algorithmic visibility:

Why wishlists still matter if they "aren't a factor"

This is the part that confuses people. Wishlists do not push your game up the algorithm by themselves, but they are how you get the first sales, and sales are what the algorithm does watch.

Valve's Wishlists docs explain the mechanics:

• Launch emails. Everyone with your game on their wishlist at release gets an email and/or mobile push notification, as long as they have a verified email and have not opted out. Early Access and the move to full release each trigger one.
• Discount emails. Wishlisters are notified when you discount by 20% or more, the discount runs for more than 8 hours, and it covers your lowest-priced package.
• A demo notification. You can notify wishlisters once when you release a free demo, within two weeks of the demo going live.
• A cooldown. Players notified about your app in the last two weeks will not get another email until the cooldown passes, and it can be longer during big sales.

So a large wishlist count turns into a burst of launch-day sales, and that early buying and playing is the "strong signal" that gets you shown to more players. Valve also says there is no minimum number of wishlists before Steam starts showing your game, and that "there's no formula to accurately predict sales from wishlists". For a rough planning range, our free wishlist to sales calculator applies published conversion medians to your count.

Before launch: where Coming Soon games appear

Before release there are no sales to measure, so this is the one stage where wishlists feed visibility more directly. Valve's wishlist FAQ says that before launch your game "may appear on lists featuring upcoming games according to various filters, such as release date, popularity, tag, or other categories", and that a wishlisted game can show up in featured sections with a reminder that it is on the player's wishlist.

Two upcoming-game placements get most of the attention:

• Popular Upcoming. This is the exception Valve names in its visibility docs. In June 2026 Valve changed the tab to better capture the most anticipated releases of the coming month. Chris Zukowski of How To Market A Game estimates that the bar moved from roughly 7,000 wishlists to somewhere around 100,000, which takes it out of reach for most indies.
• Personal Calendar. Introduced at the same time, it shows players a personalised calendar of upcoming releases. Zukowski's early sampling suggests a game needs somewhere between 8,000 and 30,000 wishlists to appear on it, and that it can give visibility for around two months before launch and a month after. These are his estimates from observed data, not Valve figures.

Release date display matters here too. Valve's release date docs explain that upcoming lists sort a vague date as the last possible day of its range, so "Q1 2027" is listed as if you release on 31 March. Our guide to when to launch after Next Fest covers how to use that, and how many wishlists you need to launch goes deeper on the numbers.

At launch: the baseline, then performance

Valve describes launch visibility in two layers.

Baseline visibility. When you release, your game goes into a pool of just-released titles. Each time a logged-in player opens the New Releases Queue, Steam builds a queue from that pool, prioritising the titles with the fewest views since release. Players can filter out games by tag or product type, so your tags decide who you are shown to even here. You also appear on the All New Releases list.

Organic visibility on top. If players respond by buying, playing and reviewing, your game may appear in:

• New and Trending on the home page, though Valve warns you can be "bumped off this list quickly" if lots of popular games launch the same week.
• Top Sellers, on the home page and on relevant genre and tag pages, once you have the sales rank.
• The main capsule at the top of the store. Valve says it is "driven by what players spend time and money on, rather than Valve curation" and is different for every player.
• Recommendations, the Discovery Queue, curator lists and friends' activity feeds.

Every placement above depends on people actually buying and playing. That is why the launch week matters so much, and why a launch clash with a big release in your genre can hurt.

After launch: updates and discounts

The algorithm does not forget you after launch week, but you have to give it a reason to show you again.

• Update Visibility Rounds. After your launch visibility ends, you can start a round from the Marketing & Visibility section in Steamworks for a major update, new content or DLC. Your game is shown in the "Recently Updated" space on the home page to players who own it or have it wishlisted, for up to 30 days or 1 million impressions, whichever comes first. Each product starts with five rounds, shared between Early Access and full release, and the round needs a community announcement posted in the last 30 days. Rounds do not show during the big seasonal sales but those days still count, so avoid starting one just before a sale. Details are in Valve's Update Visibility Rounds docs.
• Discounts. A discount of 20% or more re-notifies your wishlisters (within the cooldown rules above), and discounted games can appear in Specials sections.

Tags and language: the two levers you fully control

Purchases depend on your game and your marketing. Tags and languages are settings you can fix in an afternoon.

Tags. Valve uses your tags to decide which browse and tag pages you appear on, which games it treats as similar to yours and who to show you to. Only your top 20 tags are used, and the most heavily weighted ones count most, so the order matters, and Valve notes some store filters prioritise your first 15. Our Steam tags guide explains how to choose and order them, and the free Steam tag checker shows which of your 20 slots are empty or weak.

Language. Steam is more likely to show your game to players who speak a language it supports. If your regional wishlist data shows interest from players in other languages, translating your store page (and ideally the game) widens who Steam can show you to. Our Steam store page localisation service can help with the page itself.

So does your store page matter?

Yes, just not in the way people assume. Valve says traffic and conversion rate are not inputs to the algorithm. But the store page is where those launch-day visitors and New Releases Queue views turn into purchases, and purchases are the signal that earns more visibility. A page that converts badly wastes the baseline views Steam gives every new release, and it collects fewer wishlists before launch, so fewer people get the launch email.

In other words, the page does not talk to the algorithm directly. It decides how much the algorithm has to work with. Our guide to getting more Steam wishlists covers the page-first fixes.

Check where Steam is already showing you

You do not have to guess. In Steamworks, open your app's Marketing & Visibility section and click Traffic Breakdown. Valve's traffic data shows each place your game was shown, the number of impressions there and how many players clicked through to your page. If a placement brings impressions but few clicks, your capsule is the first thing to look at.

A checklist you can act on today

1. Tags. All 20 slots filled, the five most accurate genre and mechanic tags at the top.
2. Languages. Supported languages listed correctly, with the largest non-English audiences in your wishlist data considered for translation.
3. Coming Soon page live early, so wishlists (and the launch email list) build for as long as possible.
4. Release date display chosen on purpose, not left as "Coming Soon" by accident.
5. Notifications planned. Demo email, launch, and first discount spaced outside each other's two-week cooldown.
6. Update rounds saved for real updates. You only start with five.
7. Traffic Breakdown checked after every event, to see which placements send players.

Get your page ready for the traffic

Steam will show a new release to players. Whether they buy is down to your page. A free WishlistLab audit scores your capsule, short description, trailer, screenshots and tags in about 20 seconds and lists the three fixes that matter most. If you want every fix rather than the top three, or a weekly re-audit while you build towards launch, see WishlistLab pricing.

Sources: Steamworks: Visibility on Steam · Steamworks: Wishlists · Steamworks: Update Visibility Rounds · Steamworks: Steam Tags · Steamworks: Release Dates · How To Market A Game: How the Steam Personal Calendar affects your launch