How to Get More Steam Wishlists Before Launch

Short answer: the wishlist number moves when four things line up: a store page that converts, a clear "wishlist on Steam" ask in everything you post, a moment players can act on (a demo, a festival, a discount) and short-form video that sends people to the page that same week. Fix them in that order, then put the last two in the same week.

If you have ever refreshed Steamworks hoping the wishlist count went up, you are in good company. For most indie games, wishlists before launch are the clearest early read on how the launch will go.

Why wishlists matter so much

When your game releases, everyone who wishlisted it gets an email or a push notification. The same happens on every discount of 20% or more, with a two week cooldown between messages (Steamworks docs). A strong first week then helps the game show up in more of Steam's own recommendation spots (how Steam visibility works).

So the goal of pre-launch marketing is not views or followers. It is wishlists.

1. Make the store page convert

All your marketing ends on this page. If people land and leave, nothing else on this list matters.

• Capsule. Readable at thumbnail size. The genre should be obvious at a glance (Steam asset specs).
• First screenshots and first seconds of the trailer. Real gameplay. No logos, no menus.
• Short description. What the player does, not the backstory.
• Tags. Match what successful games in your niche use, so Steam shows you to the right people (tagging docs).

Ask someone who has never seen the game to look at the page for five seconds and tell you what it is. Their answer is your conversion audit.

2. Ask for the wishlist everywhere

It sounds obvious and most studios still forget it. Every post, video, newsletter, Discord announcement and devlog should end with "Wishlist on Steam" and a link. People rarely do what nobody asked them to do.

3. Release a demo

A demo gives players a reason to try the game now and wishlist it for later. It also gives creators something to play and record. Don't drop it quietly. Plan a week of posts and creator videos around the day it goes live.

4. Use festivals

Steam runs Next Fest three times a year, plus a long list of themed fests. Each brings a wave of players looking for new games. The studios that get the most out of them start building attention three to four weeks earlier, so people recognise the game when it shows up in the festival list. We wrote a full plan in how to market your Steam Next Fest demo.

5. Get creators posting short videos

TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels are where most players discover new games now. One good 20 second clip can send thousands of people to search for your game.

The fastest way to do that at scale is a creator campaign, where many creators post about the game in the same few days and you pay per view. Results from campaigns with public case studies:

Game	Wishlists added	Cost per wishlist
Anomaly Control Simulator	+21,500 from a new page	$0.18
Clay Clinic	+16,750	$0.16
Very Safe Dino Park	+15,701	$0.10
Catch Meow If You Can	+11,961	$0.20

What it looks like in Steamworks: Catch Meow If You Can had a nearly flat page, then took roughly 3,400 wishlist adds the day after the first clips went up. UnLoop had its best day at 1,439 wishlists against a usual 244, close to six times its normal pace.

If you're new to working with creators, start with our influencer marketing guide for indie games.

6. Put it all in the same week

Each push works harder when several things happen at once: the demo goes live, a festival starts and creators post that same week. Each one makes the others work harder.

1. 6 to 8 weeks before. Fix the store page. Get the demo ready.
2. 3 to 4 weeks before. Post your own clips. Book the creator campaign.
3. Demo or festival week. Creators post, you reshare the best videos, everyone gets reminded to wishlist.
4. The week after. Check which videos brought the most wishlists and do more of that.

7. Track it daily

Check wishlists every day during a campaign and write down what went live that day. When a video takes off, you usually see the jump the same day or the next. That tells you which hooks your audience responds to, which is the most useful input for your launch trailer and your next campaign.

For estimates on games that aren't yours, tools like Gamalytic model wishlist counts from public data. For your own game, Steamworks is the source of truth.

Start before you feel ready

The most common mistake is waiting until a month before launch. Wishlists take time to build, and every week you start earlier is a week you can test hooks. A release a year away is not too early to start.

FAQ

How many wishlists do I need before launch?
There is no magic number. More wishlists means a bigger launch day email blast and a better shot at Steam's own visibility. Track your weekly growth rate rather than chasing a single target.

Do wishlists convert to sales?
Not all of them, and not all on day one. Steam keeps notifying wishlisters on every discount of 20% or more, so a wishlist keeps working long after launch.

What brings the most wishlists the fastest?
In our data, a creator campaign: many creators posting in the same day or two. Catch Meow If You Can took roughly 3,400 wishlists in a single day after its clips went up.

How much does it cost to get wishlists with creators?
On our recent campaigns, $0.10 to $1.22 per wishlist. The full breakdown is in how much game influencer marketing costs.

See what a campaign could do for your game

Campaigns on Trapster start at $3,000, and on more than half of them the first video is live within 3 hours. Send us your Steam page for a free wishlist forecast. Trapster for studios · Book a call

Sources: Steamworks documentation on wishlists, visibility, tags and events. Campaign figures come from Trapster case studies, based on studio Steamworks data where the studio shared it. Cost per wishlist excludes the platform fee.