They don’t list their methodology, so it’s pretty much a made up number.
And yeah, back when you had to add the entire bundle to your account, you’d get a ton of crap bundle games that you’d never play. These days you can generally list the code for others to use.
It's definitely inflated but I'd say the real number has to be at the very least within 10% of that estimate (probably a lot more, but I've seen some AAA games at a 90% discount in the past) which is still in the billions of dollars, which is still kind of nuts
Fuck do I ever relate to this. I probably have over 200 titles in my Steam library that I redeemed from Humble Bundles and have never installed. Insane.
The number is based on the 10% of Steam accounts visible publicly. And then they calculated based on current full retail price of the unplayed games. It's a nonsense figure.
For sure. Easily half (likely more) of my unplayed games are Bundle games from a bundle I got primarily for something else. There's a few gems I'm sure.
There are a few games I bought on sale to play later as well (I'll get to you!) but the other glaring flaw I see is a selection bias. The people who use this service or similar services are going to be the heavier Steam users with collections in the hundreds.
So heavier users, with lots of bundle games and sales. I'd divide that total by 10 at least
I have over 500 titles in my backlog of shame (loads of freebies, but still shameful). If I play a new game every week, it'll take me 10 years to get through it.
What if some are absolute bangers and I sink 300+ hours in? I'll never be finished!
But what if none of them are? For 10 years I'd have slogged through a quagmire of mediocrity for nothing other than to tick a series of boxes.
I have a bunch of games I bought a while after playing the pirated versions, and I usually don't play them at all.
I guess there isn't really a way to see how many people do this.
Most of my unplayed games were part of bundles, or giveaways. But I am guilty of buying games and only playing them a small time before moving on to the next new different thing.
So, what you are saying is that all the people using steam combined might make it to the top 100 list of billionaires if their unplayed games were personified?
Why? You bought the games. It's like going to the store, buying a bunch of clothes, and realizing after a few months that you don't want them anymore. They cannot be returned.
They don't say how they come to that number in the article, so I assume they are using non-sale prices. I know that I've gotten some bundles of games in the past that were 95%+ off, which I bought just for the one game because it was the same price or cheaper.