How to Turn Creator Views Into Steam Wishlists

Short answer: a view is not a wishlist. On Trapster, campaigns landed anywhere from $0.10 to $1.22 per wishlist, and games with about the same number of views ended up with very different results. The difference comes from what the clip makes people want to do: watch, or play. Clips that sell a clear premise in the first seconds, show the game's name and land around a moment players can act on turn views into wishlists far better than clips that are just fun to watch.

Most creator campaigns report views. Views are easy to count and easy to celebrate. But your launch needs wishlists, and the two don't move together as neatly as you'd hope.

How different can the results be?

Game	Views	Wishlists added	Cost per wishlist
Very Safe Dino Park	1,566,407	+15,701	$0.10
Fracture Point	1,588,922	+6,600 over baseline	$0.24
Don't Panic! It is Just Turbulence	924,207	+5,248	$0.29
I Know a Guy: Shady Life Simulator	831,420	+5,187	$0.39
A Game About Chopping Trees	1,087,420	+1,580	$1.01
Galactic Vault	357,140	+1,307	$1.22

A Game About Chopping Trees reached over a million views, not far from Fracture Point. Fracture Point added roughly four times as many wishlists. Very Safe Dino Park and Fracture Point had almost the same views, and Dino Park added more than twice the wishlists. Same format, same platforms, very different outcomes.

Why don't views always turn into wishlists?

• The clip is fun, but the game isn't the point. A funny moment can travel far without making anyone curious about playing.
• Viewers don't know what the game is. If the name never appears on screen or in the caption, a viewer who wants it has to work to find it. Most won't.
• There's nothing to do yet. A clip that lands months before a store page, demo or launch moment gives viewers no reason to act today.
• The store page doesn't close the deal. Creators bring people to your page. The capsule, trailer and first screenshots decide whether they wishlist. The checklist is in how to get more Steam wishlists.

What makes a clip convert?

• A premise you can explain in one line. "Run a dinosaur park that is very, very safe" or "pilot a plane through turbulence and don't panic" makes people imagine playing it.
• One breakout clip can carry a campaign. Very Safe Dino Park's top TikTok passed 731,000 views. Galactic Vault had no single breakout, and its reach came from a wide spread of creators instead.
• Concentrate the posts. Fracture Point had all 107 videos go up on the same day. Don't Panic! fit its whole posting window inside a single day. A burst is easier to see in your wishlist graph and easier for viewers to notice.
• Give creators the name and the moment. Put the game's name, the exact on screen hook and the one thing players should do (wishlist, play the demo) in the brief. Our creator brief template shows how.

How do you measure it properly?

Steam shows wishlist additions, purchases and deletions in the Wishlists section of your Sales & Activation Reports, updated daily for the previous day (Steamworks wishlist reporting). Before you credit a campaign, subtract your normal daily wishlists. Fracture Point's developer did exactly that: the page usually added about 1,400 wishlists a day, so only the growth above that counted. The full method is in how to measure wishlists from a creator campaign.

For links you control, such as a link in a creator's bio or description, Steamworks UTM Analytics shows visits and the wishlists, purchases and activations that happen within 72 hours of the click, for visitors signed in to Steam.

On Trapster, Wishlist Autopilot goes one step further. Every day it matches your Steamworks wishlists by country with where each creator's audience lives. Regions that don't bring wishlists stop getting the campaign, and the best ones get more creators. It needs a Steamworks key for your game.

FAQ

What is a good cost per wishlist from creator campaigns?
On Trapster, the campaigns above ranged from $0.10 to $1.22 per wishlist. Your genre, premise and store page all move that number. More in how much game influencer marketing costs.

Are more views always better?
No. A million views that don't make people curious about the game can bring fewer wishlists than half as many views of a clip that sells the premise.

How soon do wishlists show up after a campaign?
Steam updates wishlist data daily for the previous day, so check the day after the posts go live and compare against your normal daily average.

Should every clip show the game's name?
Yes. On screen, in the caption, or said out loud. Viewers who want the game should never have to search for it.

Turn your views into wishlists

Send us your Steam page and we'll send back a free forecast for views, creators and wishlists. See Trapster for studios or book a call.

Sources: Steamworks documentation on wishlist reporting and UTM analytics. Campaign figures come from Trapster case studies. Cost per wishlist is the creator budget divided by wishlists added, platform fee excluded.