Is Gamescom Worth It? A Breakdown of Our Steam Wishlists During Gamescom 2024

Announcements

• Celebrating 2 years of this newsletter. Thank you to all our subscribers for the support!
• We’re excited to announce that The Rabbit Haul will be showcased at the Alberta Games Series this week in Calgary. Looking forward to catching up with all the amazing Alberta studios and devs!
• We’ll also be attending the Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) at the end of the month.
• No October playtest as we continue to work on some major features and updates.

Gamescom 2024: Wishlist Case Study

Have you ever wondered why developers are always pushing for Steam wishlists? Think of Steam as a social media platform where wishlists act as “likes.” The more wishlists you get, the more likely Steam will promote your game on visible parts of the platform like the Popular Upcoming widget. Many indie studios aim for the 7,000+ wishlist mark, which is said to increase your chances of making it on that widget and significantly boost your wishlists in return.

For indie developers, every wishlist counts, and that’s why events like Gamescom can be so crucial for building momentum. But let’s be honest, events like these can be very expensive, especially when you’re working with a limited budget. Luckily, the Edmonton Screen Industries Office (ESIO), a local organization, sponsored our booth and travel to Cologne for Gamescom 2024, making it possible for us to attend this major event.

Our Initiatives for Gamescom 2024

To make the most of the event, we planned several initiatives to attract attention and boost our wishlists:

• We localized our Steam page into the top 10 most popular languages on Steam: French, German, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean.
• We teamed up with four other studios for a Stamp Rally where attendees could win a Steam gift card by collecting stamps and entering a raffle.
• We brought 1,000 sprout hair clips and 1,500 postcards with game information as giveaways.
• We streamed gameplay on our Steam page throughout the entire Gamescom steam festival.
• Organized and ran a closed playtest of our demo on Discord during Gamescom 2024.

The Results

Here’s a breakdown of the data from our time at Gamescom 2024:

• 1,293 wishlists added between August 20 and August 25, 2024.
• Around 733 unique people played our demo at the booth during the event.
• We stamped 462 cards during the show as part of the Stamp Rally.
• On August 20, we showcased our game at Courage Cologne, where 68 people played the game.
• We had 2,745 unique visits to our Steam page during the event, with 42% of those visits coming from the Gamescom Steam Sale page.
• Only about 466 visits came from QR codes and links displayed at our booth and on our handouts.

In terms of geographical traffic

• 29% of the traffic came from Germany.
• 20% from the US.
• 11% from Russia, which we believe was driven by our Russian localization.

Key Takeaways

• Gamescom Steam Festival is the real driver of wishlist traffic, not just having a booth. The event’s global reach on Steam is where most of the visibility comes from.
• Our sprout hair clips were a hit and became an unexpected booster for discoverability.
• The Stamp Rally helped us maintain momentum, particularly after traffic from the Steam Festival page began to taper off.
• While Gamescom is an international event, our data shows that it’s still primarily a German-focused event.
• Russian traffic was surprising, but it likely came from our decision to localize the Steam page into Russian.
• Missing out on showcases like the Future Games Show or Awesome Indies Showcase impacted our overall visibility. Securing a spot in these could have increased our wishlist numbers dramatically.
• We gained 125 new newsletter subscribers from the Stamp Rally and about the same number of social media followers from our live posts during the event.

The Aftermath: Was It Worth It?

For us, the return on investment was positive, especially since our trip and booth were largely subsidized. However, it’s important to note that results can vary wildly. We heard about studios in the Indie Arena Booth who only garnered a few hundred wishlists, while others who had their trailers featured in the Future Games Show or Awesome Indies Showcase gained thousands of wishlists each day. It’s always a gamble.

While we didn’t attract a ton of press attention, we did get some coverage:

• Robokot Games (Russia) published an article recommending our game at Courage Cologne.
• Jugendforum NRW (Germany) made a reel about our game, thanks in part to the popularity of the sprout hair clips.
• Indie Games Plus (international) covered our demo after playing it at Gamescom.

Final Thoughts

Overall, we’re happy with the wishlist numbers we generated at Gamescom 2024. It’s a big event, but it’s important to manage expectations and strategize to maximize the return. The community aspect, the press, and the exposure all contribute, but it’s often the side events and smaller engagements that add up.
Beyond wishlists and demos, Gamescom is also a fantastic place to network with other developers, publishers, and industry professionals. The event offers countless opportunities to meet potential collaborators and partners. We took full advantage of this, booking several business-to-business meetings that could lead to exciting new partnerships and opportunities for our studio. If you attend Gamescom, make sure to bring business cards, set up meetings in advance, and use the event to expand your professional network.

We’d love to hear how other indie developers fared at Gamescom. Please share any tips for next year.

Thank you for reading, and we’ll catch you next month!
-- Isael