36% of All Games Owned on Steam Are Never Played

[Hemingslay]

So... The next time a production company complains about people playing their games without paying for them, we can pat them consolingly and remind them that there's probably also a big chunk of people paying for their games without playing them?

Really, though, doesn't everyone do the same thing with books? Things that look new and exciting on a store shelf, but lose their lustre when they're next to our old familiar favourites?

I swear, every time I get a new game on Steam I'm super jazzed all through installing it, but just as I'm about to boot it up for the first time I change my mind and kill another week of my life with Civilization V instead...

 

[Flammablezeus]

I love that I have a backlog of games to choose from. It's easier on PC than on console (although I do have numerous console games that I've not yet played) and it's great. If I'm bored, I have a decent selection of games to choose from. Considering I'm often in the mood for a specific kind of gameplay, this suits me fine.

 

[GabeZhul]

The only real news here was that people are buying skyrim and never even playing it. ITS A GOOD GAME PEOPLE!

I'm guilty of this, I have a ton of games(feel free to look me up to see how guilty) but in my defense, a massive amount of those came from bundles where i wanted one of the games and it was cheaper than buying it individually. Then again I'm also obsessive compulsive so thats could be a factor too

I actually have a friend who has been a great fan of the Elder Scrolls games ever since Daggerfall, and he bought Skyrim on steam pretty much when it came out but yet to play it because he is horrible with money and can never get a large enough sum together to finally upgrade his antique PC to the point where he can actually play it...
Just one anecdotal example, but there to point out that there can be other reasons beside humble bundles why some games remain unplayed (though said bundles are probably still the biggest offenders by far)...

 

[weirdee]

I'm willing to bet that most of those are mediocre indie games that came with bundles, unless they're specifically excluding them from the data set, which it doesn't sound like they are because they're only going by public data.

 

[gorfias]

Looking at my steam library, around 100 of the 280 games have never been installed.

The main offenders probably being the humble-bundle games. When you buy a 1 dollar bundle because you want 1 game, there's going to be 5 games just gathering dust in the library.

Still, a very interesting (possibly disturbing) trend.

Also, on my profile all of the Borderlands DLC are listed as games, which becomes another 6 "games" where only one is played.

I'm in the same shoes (mostly humble-bundle). But I don't think it disturbing. I like that the community is supporting developers, even if they don't use all they buy. Surpluses are a good thing.

Steam itself does this to me sometimes. I bought the Lara Croft games for about $15. It included the newest one, and about 8 other games, 6 of which are so old with such antiquated gameplay that they aren't worth downloading. It was still a great deal and I hope the developers all get a taste to encourage them to make more.

 

[Gailim]

Remember when PC gamers were all pirates that never payed for the games the played?

and as others have said this stat isn't quite what it seems. According to steam I have never played Half Life 2: Episode 1 or 2. When of course I have beat both multiple times, I just did it before Steam started tracking playtime in 2009-ish.

between stuff like that, humble bundles and those amazing 5 for 5 indie bundles from the 2010 winter sale there is a lot of stuff where I only wanted one of the games.

The only game on Steam I have purchased with no intent to ever play is Morrowind and I did that for other reasons

 

[Dale Ware]

I do know a person who has over 700 steam games. he uses steam roulette (its real) to randomly chose a game he hasnt played every week.

This is a thing? where does one get this?

I read the article, and i'm taking it as a challenge. To at least play an hour of every game in my steam catalogue.

So i'm apparently at 83 played of 205 or 40% if i've done that right...

Challenge accepted.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

A thought: if you play a game while Steam is in offline mode (which I do a lot), does the damn thing log the time you played? Because I could swear it doesn't...

[checking...]

Nope, it seems it really doesn't. I have 90 hours in Skyrim logged, while my saves tell the story of more than 300 hours played. Throws a wrench into this statistic, doesn't it?

 

[softclocks]

Whispering Cynic: I know right??

The offline mode's great, and I understand that it's purely a luxury problem, but I still enjoy having steam keep track of my gametime, progress and so on. And hell, for surveys like these it's almost a must!

I'm in the same shoes (mostly humble-bundle). But I don't think it disturbing. I like that the community is supporting developers, even if they don't use all they buy. Surpluses are a good thing.

Steam itself does this to me sometimes. I bought the Lara Croft games for about $15. It included the newest one, and about 8 other games, 6 of which are so old with such antiquated gameplay that they aren't worth downloading. It was still a great deal and I hope the developers all get a taste to encourage them to make more.

I'd like to add on to the point about supporting developers.

As was the case with both Alan Wake, Bioshock and Kotor (to name a few) they were actually games that I had played before on consoles, but didn't mind picking up on steam because they were incredibly cheap and because it helped support the developers.

Also, there's the gifting culture that Steam has spawned. For me it's actually something of a blessing. Me and my friends have the last few years simply foregone the whole gifting process around christmas-time, as we're all students we simply can't afford to buy any worthwhile gifts. Steam sales, however, has now made it possible to give someone a great gift at the cost of 1-10 euro

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

I have amassed so many games the rest of lifetime (~50 to 60 Years) is probably not enough to play them through.

It's all about viable referencing you have to make as serious gamer.
At least I have that 850GBs of Steam-Games installed on my external HDD + some more.

 

[joshuaayt]

292 games, only 187 are installed- probably only played about 50 of them seriously, and I've finished, like. 20ish. 25, if you count games like Fallout where "Finished" really means "Played it so long I was just *DONE*", but where I didn't finish the main plot.

I accumulate things! Especially digital things!

 

[Xan Krieger]

So apparently it makes me a minority that never played Dota 2 and I only spent 4 hours in Team Fortress 2 which I didn't enjoy and I've never played Counter Strike. Also I never imagined Football Manager 2014 was that popular, I only have like one friend that plays it. It's not even about football, it's about soccer.

its called football not soccer you...!

you put foot on ball, it doesnt get any easier

Apparently football is called that because the ball is one foot long so it's football unless you feel like trying to get a new size introduced. Besides soccer sounds so much more dignified than handegg.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

So apparently it makes me a minority that never played Dota 2 and I only spent 4 hours in Team Fortress 2 which I didn't enjoy and I've never played Counter Strike. Also I never imagined Football Manager 2014 was that popular, I only have like one friend that plays it. It's not even about football, it's about soccer.

its called football not soccer you...!

you put foot on ball, it doesnt get any easier

Apparently football is called that because the ball is one foot long so it's football unless you feel like trying to get a new size introduced. Besides soccer sounds so much more dignified than handegg.

i do give you that last one

cant it be called handoval?

 

[punipunipyo]

well... I bought Humble Bundles ... ususally for the sake of 2-3 out of like... 6-8 games, and I some time buy an entire series of games just for like 2 out of 7... and the odds stacks up... I ending up owning tons of games I don't play.... I mean... I played most of the WarHammer40K games... and I only buy that "out of business" bundle with all DoW1, 2 games... so... yeah...like the serious sam full pack... I only played with BFE... yeah I prabably have more than 50% in my case...

 

[Strazdas]

I do know a person who has over 700 steam games. he uses steam roulette (its real) to randomly chose a game he hasnt played every week.

This is a thing? where does one get this?

I read the article, and i'm taking it as a challenge. To at least play an hour of every game in my steam catalogue.

So i'm apparently at 83 played of 205 or 40% if i've done that right...

Challenge accepted.

there are a couople ones on google, just google "steam roulette".

if you count games like Fallout where "Finished" really means "Played it so long I was just *DONE*", but where I didn't finish the main plot.

thats not how it works! i finished fallout mani quest and all sidequests twice. fallout isnt a long game though. now morrowind.... that to complete fully took me 9 months. yes im the kind of guy that goes for 100%

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

Cheap game bundles. You want one or two of them & the rest were just icing on the cake
Personally, I try to get around to the others; I bought them, so why not? but time constraints, etc.

Not a huge surprise, I suppose

 

[Jason Brett-Williams]

Cheap game bundles. You want one or two of them & the rest were just icing on the cake
Personally, I try to get around to the others; I bought them, so why not? but time constraints, etc.

Not a huge surprise, I suppose

Exactly. I bought the Id software pack many sales ago to get a few of the newer games. That meant at least nine or ten games I'd probably never install.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

But all of those daily Steam deals....

They're too irresistible.

Good to know I'm not alone of such a guilty crime.

 

[kasperbbs]

I'm one of the few people that played through lost coast. Other than that theres piles of games that i only played half way through or simply quit after 20 minutes, the new thief game being one of them, don't even know why, i just keep finding excuses not to play it.

 

[Reaper195]

Bought a bunch of games during steam sales. Only ever got the games I wanted. Saw a game for seventy cents? Nah, didn't want that game.