How to get to 10,000 wishlists
2 min read
By Eduardo Orellana ·
10,000 wishlists is a common indie target because it usually clears Steam's Popular Upcoming threshold and, at GameDiscoverCo's median conversion, suggests roughly 1,000 to 1,500 first-week sales. Most games that get there do it with a converting store page up for months, one or two festivals (Next Fest above all), a demo, creator coverage, and steady short clips and devlogs between them. It takes most indies many months, not weeks.
Ten thousand is a launch, not a hit
At GameDiscoverCo's median of 0.10 to 0.15 first-week sales per wishlist, 10,000 wishlists is 1,000 to 1,500 copies in week one: enough to launch visibly and earn reviews, not a fortune. It is a useful target because it puts the game on Popular Upcoming and gives it a real first week.
A path there
- The page first: capsule, trailer, screenshots, hook, tags; up early.
- The first 1,000: your own reach and genre communities.
- A demo, and Steam's demo email to wishlisters.
- Next Fest: the median survey respondent in February 2026 gained 806 in the week, the 70th percentile 1,839, and the result tracks the wishlists you arrive with.
- Creators: twenty well-chosen emails with keys.
- Themed fests and a steady clip and devlog cadence between beats.
- A release date that leaves time for one more push.
Where Flockbay fits
Flockbay does the work along that path from the chat that builds the game: the Steam page as a .zip you upload yourself, the trailer and devlogs from real gameplay, clips and posts, ads on your own accounts, playtests, and your wishlists read daily. The publishing tools are free in beta until 1 December 2026.