Market Your Indie Game Lesson 2 of 5
Wishlists are the currency
Before launch, the only number that compounds is wishlists.
On Steam, the metric that matters before launch is wishlists. A wishlist is a person raising their hand to be told when your game is out or on sale — and the size of your wishlist on launch day is the single best predictor of how the launch goes. Steam also rewards wishlist momentum with visibility, so wishlists compound: more visibility brings more wishlists.
How to actually collect them
- Publish your Steam page as early as you reasonably can — you cannot collect wishlists without a page
- Put a clear “Wishlist on Steam” call to action on every surface you own: your site, your devlog, your socials, your itch page
- Ask directly and specifically — “Wishlist it on Steam” converts far better than “check it out”
- Give people a reason now (a demo, a striking GIF) and a reason later (the wishlist reminder does the selling at launch)
Tip A wishlist reminder is a marketing message you have already earned. Every wishlist is a launch-day and every-sale email you do not have to pay for.
Quick check
Before launch, the most important Steam metric is: