Steam Summer Sale more successful than last year: $236m vs $160m

[Techicolors]

 

In total a staggering 37 million games were sold during the Steam Summer Sale 2016, up from 33 million last year, a 12% increase. That’s 3.08 million games sold every day, 128,000 an hour, or 2,141 each and every minute.

 

Where things get really interesting is in the cash spent though. A total of $236 million was spent this year, up from $160 million in 2015. That’s a 47.5% increase in spending, yet only a 12% increase in the number of games sold.

 

This points to a few possible outcomes - that PC gamers are willing to spend more money per game this year, or that there were more highly sought after games on sale this year. If I bust out my calculator we can see that the average price spent on a game rose from $4.71 to $6.37.

 

Part of the rise is explained by the average discount - 66% last year vs 50% this year. This demonstrates PC gamers are now more willing to pay a higher percentage for a game, which is great news for developers. The race to bottom on Steam cannot be understated; countless bundles and ridiculous 90% discounts have devalued how players think of games, but we can see here that it is beginning to crawl back up.

 

I'm thinking part of the reason is due to daily and flash sales not being done this year, so people have more time to buy what they want, and use the refund system to its fullest. 

 

 

But as always this is an estimated number from Steam Spy. 

 

Sources:

http://www.game-debate.com/news/20708/steam-users-spent-236-million-in-the-summer-sale-50-per-cent-more-than-last-year

[Briggsy]

Interesting. I personally spent less this year in the steam summer sale than any previous year (spent 40 bucks maybe?).

 

The increase must be from console gamers who ported themselves over to PC gaming. I know my younger brother (a somewhat recent console convert to pc gaming) bought a crap load of games and was destroying the internet bandwidth for days with downloads lol.

[deVIZtation]

I've noticed that the discounts were less this year than previous sales. Example, I remember when I bought CSGO a couple years ago, it was 75% off, and I got it for like 3 bucks, now when it's on sale, it's only 50% off, so like 7 bucks.

[theninja35]

19 minutes ago, deVIZtation said:

I've noticed that the discounts were less this year than previous sales. Example, I remember when I bought CSGO a couple years ago, it was 75% off, and I got it for like 3 bucks, now when it's on sale, it's only 50% off, so like 7 bucks.

I agree, and believe that was a part of why the sales were higher, however it was mentioned that an estimated 37 million were sold as opposed to last year's 33 million.

[deVIZtation]

15 minutes ago, theninja35 said:

I agree, and believe that was a part of why the sales were higher, however it was mentioned that an estimated 37 million were sold as opposed to last year's 33 million.

More people bought GTA V at 35 bucks as apposed to 60 bucks with a shark card last sale? LOL

[That Norwegian Guy]

Every year I spend less than the last year, the discounts are getting worse and everyone I know are doing the same thing. So unless Doom was 60%+ of the reason for this, I don't believe it until I see a bank statement from Valve themselves.

 

If my summer sale curve holds up, I will buy 0.85 games next year's sale

[PlayStation 2]

This summer sale was shit, and there wasn't even anything interesting like the Monster Summer Sale game last year.

[suicidalfranco]

was about to get TIS-100 and African Kingdoms this summer sale, but then i received TIS'100 on humble monthly (what are the odd for that happening) and African Kingdom didn't impress as i was disappointed with the fact that unit arts were the same as every other civilization

[shermantanker]

Well I didn't buy anything, and this is the first sale I didn't get anything.

[Hunter259]

I couldn't turn down Tomb Raider for 5 bucks. Great use of 9 hours.

[BuckGup]

I bought nothing this year. Thought about DOOM but $35 is still too much. No Man's Sky is the only game that I am looking forward to. I still remember during Christmas they had Left for Dead 2 free for 2 days

[WereCat]

I just got Arma 3 Apex and that wasn't even part of the summer sale.

 

Edit

 

Oh.. I actually got 3D Mark + PC Mark bundle.

[Clyne]

Meh..it was cheaper for me to buy games off of Humble Store than Steam store, the only reason i bought something off the Steam store was that i had money in my Steam wallet.

[Camisto]

i got :

 

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak 25$ (been wanting this game for ever)

Wolfenstien: the new order 10$ (doom was good so I wanted to give this a shot)

Rocksmith: 8$ i think (not sure if ill ever boot this one up xD)

Ecco the dolphin and Ecco the dolphin sands of time (oh nostalgia) 75c each

[Daiyus]

I picked up BioShock and Fable Anniversary. I've got BioShock on disc, but spending the ~£2 to ensure I get the remastered version didn't seem unfair. Fable was a classic from my early teens when I was getting into gaming, spending ~£4 on it now to get a nostalgia hit was worth it, plus it's ONLY available digitally so I had to grab it while it didn't seem overpriced. Usually I get games cheaper ordering physical editions on Amazon than digital ones on Steam, especially if they're older. 90% of the time they activate through Steam/Origin/UPlay/GOG anyway so unless the sales have stupidly good deals (like GOG having the whole Witcher series for under £20, yeah I'm really late to that party) I don't normally bother.

[ShadowCaptain]

Spent like £50  oops

[vanished]

Wow, obviously the new strategy is working!  That is, despite what people seem to think of it...

 

TB actually has a great argument as to why we shouldn't be wishing for the "old way" back:

 

 

[AlTech]

I spent a grand total of nothing this year on steam. Did not buy a single game.

[Master Disaster]

5 hours ago, Camisto said:

i got :

 

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak 25$ (been wanting this game for ever)

Wolfenstien: the new order 10$ (doom was good so I wanted to give this a shot)

Rocksmith: 8$ i think (not sure if ill ever boot this one up xD)

Ecco the dolphin and Ecco the dolphin sands of time (oh nostalgia) 75c each

Wolf TNO is a fantastic game, one of the best games to come out in 2014, well worth $10. TOB isn't anywhere near as good though, still worth playing mind. 

[raphidy]

What, i just bought 3dmark to cry when benchmarking and dirt 3 because I just got a new wheel. And the redux pack. I already got other good game in previous sales so... Surely, the sales must come from new pc gamers.

[ForsakenLive]

I bought 5 games on this year's sale, last year's sale was a bit worst IMO, I only bought 2 games then. 

[onlybuilt4cubanxlinx]

I honestly don't think I bought one game to play.. I bought those ridiculous 90+% off bundles for 10 cents only to get the cards out of them. Idlemaster FTW... The one thing I bought to use was the 3dmark tool. I have 67 Games on my Wish List and nothing was 80% or above off so I passed on allot.

[Misanthrope]

I kind of stabilized in my rate of adquiring games now: Some new titles I get day one but when I don't I wait about a year for them to come down to 60% off or more.

 

So since I already have over 200 games just new releases that eventually get discounted grab my interest, about 2 to 3 games per sale I'd say.

[nims0c]

On 7/6/2016 at 6:57 PM, deVIZtation said:

I've noticed that the discounts were less this year than previous sales. Example, I remember when I bought CSGO a couple years ago, it was 75% off, and I got it for like 3 bucks, now when it's on sale, it's only 50% off, so like 7 bucks.

I believe this is to deter cheaters.

[werto165]

I bought elite dangerous. That's it, got most of the games that I want now anyway, still haven't played all of witcher 3. I usually just end up playing rocket league instead xD.