Wishlist deletions: why players remove your game
2 min read
By Eduardo Orellana ·
Every game loses wishlists. Steamworks' wishlist report counts deletions beside additions and purchases, and a deletion includes players who bought the game (it leaves their wishlist), players who lost interest over a long wait, players who bought it elsewhere, and players put off by a change: a delay, a new direction, a price, a controversy. Steam does not record why. Watch net additions, and look for spikes after specific events.
Deletions are normal; spikes are information
A steady trickle of deletions is what every game sees. What matters is the net (additions minus deletions) and sudden jumps in deletions, which almost always line up with something you did or said.
Why players remove a game
- They bought it: a purchase takes the game off the wishlist.
- The wait was long: interest cools over years.
- They bought elsewhere, such as on another store or in a bundle.
- Something changed: a delay, a shift in genre or art style, a price, Early Access instead of a full release, a controversy.
- Clean-ups: players prune long wishlists, often before big sales.
Reading it
In Steamworks' Sales & Activations portal, the app's Wishlists section shows daily additions, deletions and purchases. Plot net additions over time and mark your announcements, trailers and sales on the same chart; a deletion spike the day of an announcement tells you how it landed.
Where Flockbay fits
Flockbay reads your exact wishlists from your own Steamworks key, which never leaves your machine, free on every account.