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VG Insights
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About Video Game Insights

VG Insights uses both 3rd party data sources as well as primary research for its database. Due to the large 3rd party datasets we are unable to guarantee complete accuracy of all datapoints, but do our best to fix and improve the data as and when discrepancies are highlighted.

3rd party sources

Steam API – List of over 50k games, their price points, reviews, genre and numerous other datapoints.
IGDB API – List of over 130k games, detailed categorisation, average play times and numerous other datapoints.

Glossary

TermDescription AAA Publishers Publishers who have over $7.5m revenue per game released, over $250m lifetime revenues on Steam, average game price of over $17 and has an average game complexity above a VGI defined threshold. This list has then been manually refined by VGI to adjust for generally accepted classifications. AA Publishers Publishers who have $1-7.5m revenue per game released, $50-250m lifetime revenue on Steam, average game price of $10-17 and has an average game complexity above a VGI defined threshold. This list has then been manually refined by VGI to adjust for generally accepted classifications. Indie Publishers Publishers who don't fit the AA criteria. This categorie includes some bigger names as well as tiny 1 person self published games. Genre 9 genres defined on Steam Sales Units Estimate Using different estimation methods, including an algorithm based on our internal database of actual sales and the Boxleiter method to get from Steam review numbers to estimated sales. Detailed overview of the method is highlighted in the section below. Sales Revenue Estimate Estimated units sold multiplied by the price at the time. This is gross revenue, including the Steam cut, but adjusted for local currencies, returned products and discounts. Paid games Games that have a purchase price of more than 0 at the time of the VGI database udpate. Price Price of the game on Steam at the time of the VGI database update. Publishers Publisher names as defined by Steam. Note: Some publisher names in Steam are duplicative and slightly misspelled, e.g. "BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment", "BANDAI NAMCO Entertainement", "BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc." We are working to fix this and merge publishers under one name.

Sales estimations

We are using a combination of 3 different methodologies to estimate the games units sold:

  • Boxleiter multiple (Review multiples) – We are using our customised version of the Boxleiter method, estimating Steam revenues based on number of reviews they've received. Boxleiter method remains a simple, but remarkably accurate method for sales estimation. Our algorithm includes more complexity behind the scenes than standard Boxleiter, including things like year of release, genre and price of the game
  • Steam top selling games lists – We also use the Steam weekly top selling games lists to adjust our data and make it more accurate, somewhat similarly to how the likes of SensorTower and App Annie estimate mobile games sales
  • An algorithm based on our own proprietary data of actual units sold, collected from both public sources as well as through publisher and developer relationships

Based on our internal tests, we've found that our estimates are within ±15% margin of error at an individual games data level for 84% of the games on Steam. At an aggregate level, the estimates are within ±5% margin of error.

See our detailed article to learn more about our estimation methodology and accuracy of our estimates. The article also includes the results of comparing our data against the publicly available actual data.

Noticed something that doesn't seem right?

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