Is 7,000 wishlists the magic number?
2 min read
By Eduardo Orellana ·
7,000 is a rule of thumb from Chris Zukowski of How To Market A Game: around that many wishlists, a game will probably reach Steam's Popular Upcoming list at some point before release. It is not a Valve threshold, not a sales target and not fixed: Popular Upcoming ranks you against whatever else releases that week, so games have appeared with about 5,500 and others with more than 7,000 have missed.
A useful number, repeated until it sounded like a rule
Few numbers in indie marketing are quoted as often as 7,000 wishlists. It comes from one developer-marketing consultant's observation of when games appear on Popular Upcoming, and it is a good observation. It is also often misread as the line between success and failure, which it is not.
What it means
Zukowski's benchmark: with about 7,000 wishlists you will probably reach Popular Upcoming at some point before launch, gaining front-page visibility. He has reported games appearing with about 5,500 in a quiet week, and suggests checking SteamDB, where a top-1,000 rank among unreleased games is a good sign.
What it does not mean
- Not a Valve threshold: Valve publishes none.
- Not a sales forecast: at GameDiscoverCo's median, 7,000 wishlists is very roughly 700 to 1,050 first-week sales.
- Not a guarantee: launch week competition moves the line.
- Not a failure below it: plenty of games launch with fewer and find players later.
Where Flockbay fits
Flockbay reads your wishlists from your own Steamworks key and any game's estimated range from its followers, free, and does the work that builds the number, free in beta until 1 December 2026.