Talk:List of best-selling PC games

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Frequently asked questions

Q: Why are there so few sales figures from the popular service Steam?

A: Sales figures for this service are rarely released because developers are forbidden from doing so due to signing a non-disclosure agreement.^[1][2][3] The few that have been released have been added. Guesstimates are not added, as the list is based on reliable figures released by developers/publishers.

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2018 leaked Steam sale numbers

(Note: Should not be confused with SteamSpy) In 2018 there was a leak with Steam's API service and someone managed to extrapolate the player numbers of over 13'000 games. As Steam is a PC only platform these numbers would be of great interest for this list.

As these numbers where calculated via achievements, they are not exact. However, they are precise. The largest error margin cannot be more than ±10'000 players, in most cases less than that, which is only a nominal matter considering we deal in millions and hundred-thousands. Plus, these are low estimates as they require any individual player to have at least 1 achievement in any particular game.

Would this list be of interest for this article? Or is there something that disqualify it? https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/07/steam-data-leak-reveals-precise-player-count-for-thousands-of-games/ --Christoffre (talk) 19:23, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It was discussed heavily by WP:VG at the time. It should not be used for sales figures. It is sometimes quoted, in context, as estimated figures. -- ferret (talk) 19:48, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Additional sources

https://www.eurogamer.net/how-are-segas-video-games-selling https://www.pcgamer.com/total-war-three-kingdoms-sold-a-million-copies-in-a-week/ https://venturebeat.com/2017/05/23/civ-vi-was-a-large-contributor-to-take-twos-net-revenue-growth/ hope this helps2601:405:4A80:B950:C4BA:540B:8A30:1436 (talk) 17:13, 10 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/-i-planet-zoo-i-has-surpassed-1-million-sales-in-under-six-months 2601:405:4A80:B950:8D8A:5056:E7D6:E63B (talk) 18:20, 3 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

SteamSpy as a viable source?

So, I have a question. I played Europa Universalis IV and noticed that the numbers given for this particular title on this table is 1 million copies sold. Yet, in the Wikipedia entry for this game, the article indicated that it has two million owners as of February 2021, per the source from SteamSpy website. Should that website be trusted as a source for the information on this list?

I checked the list of sources deprecated (or blacklisted) for Wikipedia and SteamSpy is not listed, but I am uncertain about this, hence asking this question. I also searched on Wikipedia and, sure enough, there is an article on SteamSpy, which indicated that there is accuracy concerns with the data provided by the site. So... should this source be used or not? Legion (talk) 10:58, 29 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

SteamSpy is not a reliable source. It is listed on WP:VG/S as "Steam Spy". These are estimates made from scrapping publically available data. It's unofficial and incomplete, and does not represent sales but an estimate of "Steam owners". -- ferret (talk) 13:28, 29 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Where is skyrim ?

Where is skyrim, it should be in the top 10 at least ! 212.73.34.145 (talk) 19:03, 30 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This list contains only specific sales on PC. Even discounting that Todd Howard's 60 million total figure is disputed, it includes console sales. -- ferret (talk) 00:02, 1 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Terraria State of the Game October 2024 Sales Figure

Terraria's latest state of the game forum post lists the pc sales figures at 33 million (1 million more than the current listed), however I am unable to archive the page on the wayback machine in order to have an archive for the citation, and I do not think I should update the article unless there is an archive for the citation. ShadowBlade8192 (talk) 13:59, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]