Building Your First 1,000 Steam Wishlists
If you are trying to get your first 1,000 wishlists on Steam, it is tempting to look for one reliable trick. In practice, there usually is not one. Some wishlists come from Steam itself. Others come from creators, festivals, communities, social media, press coverage, mailing lists or paid campaigns.
The useful way to think about wishlists is as the result of a system rather than a campaign you switch on once. Your Steam page needs to turn interest into action, while external marketing gives the right people a reason to visit it. The strongest approach is usually a combination of the two.
Steam says that a public Coming Soon page gives interested players somewhere to learn about your game, follow the project and add it to their wishlist. Encourage players to do both. Following enables them to be kept up to date with progress, while wishlisting lets them signal that they want to keep the game on their radar and can lead to notifications when the game launches, enters full release or is discounted under the relevant conditions. Steam also says there is no minimum wishlist count required before a game can appear to users. The Steamworks wishlist documentation explains the difference between the two actions and how wishlist notifications work.
Here are 10 practical ways to work towards your first 1,000 wishlists.
1. Put up your Steam Coming Soon page when it is ready
The first step is straightforward: create a public Steam store page before launch and make sure it represents the game properly.
You do not need every feature finished before you publish the page. You do need a clear description, accurate tags, strong screenshots, a trailer or gameplay video when available, and a capsule image that tells potential players what kind of game they are looking at. My guide on Steam capsule art explains why the artwork needs to communicate the game quickly rather than simply look attractive.
A page that is live early gives every other marketing activity somewhere useful to send people. A developer post, trailer, festival appearance or creator video should not end with “check out our website”. It should make the next action obvious: visit the Steam page and wishlist the game.
Do not publish a page that makes the game look unfinished by accident. “Coming Soon” is fine; confusing screenshots, placeholder art and a vague description are harder to recover from.
2. Improve the store page before trying to buy more traffic
More traffic will not fix a store page that fails to explain the game quickly. Before spending money on promotion, ask a few people who do not already know the project to look at the page for 10 seconds and answer:
- What sort of game is this?
- What do you actually do in it?
- Who is it for?
- What makes it different from other games in the same category?
- Where would you click if you were interested?
Use the answers to improve the first paragraph, screenshots, trailer opening and capsule art. Show the main experience rather than relying on adjectives such as “immersive”, “unique” or “next-generation”. Test one meaningful change at a time where possible, including different capsule art or copy, and compare the result in your analytics rather than relying entirely on instinct.
This is one of the cheapest ways to improve wishlist conversion because it helps every traffic source at the same time.
3. Use Steam’s own discovery opportunities
Steam has internal places where upcoming games can be discovered, although developers should not treat them as a guaranteed source of free traffic.
Make sure your release date, tags, genres, supported languages and store assets are accurate. Register for relevant Steam events when your game qualifies, especially events that let players try a demo or browse a themed selection of upcoming titles. Steamworks explains how Steam Next Fest works, including its randomized exposure and personalized discovery sections.
The opportunity is not just the event itself. A good festival appearance gives you a deadline for a new trailer, demo, developer broadcast, creator outreach and community push. Prepare those pieces before the event begins instead of hoping the event page does all the work. I have written a separate guide on how to prepare for Steam Next Fest with a more detailed preparation checklist.
4. Build a demo that gives people a reason to wishlist
A demo can turn passive interest into a much stronger action. It lets players understand the game, creates something creators can play and gives you a reason to contact your audience again.
The demo does not need to represent the entire game. It should represent the experience clearly and end with a reason to keep following the project. Add a visible wishlist message at the appropriate point, but do not interrupt the game every few minutes with demands.
When a public demo becomes available, Steam provides a mechanism for notifying players who have wishlisted the associated game, as explained in the Steamworks wishlist documentation.
A demo takes time to make and support, so it is not automatically the right choice for every project. If you create one, test the onboarding, performance and controller support carefully. A poor demo can reduce interest just as quickly as a good one can increase it.
5. Make short-form video part of the routine
Short-form video is useful because it can demonstrate the game before someone has read a store description. Show a mechanic, an unusual interaction, a surprising failure, a before-and-after improvement or a compact piece of player decision-making. Before committing to one format, search for current trends and study which platforms are working best for games like yours, what type of content is relevant there and why people are engaging with it.
Do not post the same thing everywhere and call that a strategy. Make the content for the player, in the places they already spend time. A player-facing message sounds more like, “Hey, I would like you to check out this new feature because it changes how you play,” rather than, “Hey guys, check out this new feature.” The first speaks to a person and gives them a reason to care; the second sounds like a broadcast to nobody in particular.
Avoid making every post a trailer. A trailer asks people to watch; a good short clip gives them a reason to stop scrolling. Add a clear route to the Steam page in the profile, post copy or comments where the platform allows it. My guide to game trailer marketing covers why the right video depends on where it will be seen and what the viewer needs to understand next.
This approach may be free in money, but it is expensive in time. It usually works better as a series than as one large announcement. Keep notes on which ideas attract views, comments, profile visits and Steam traffic. Views are useful, but they are not the same thing as wishlists.
6. Keep a simple website and build a community you can reach again
A one-page website is still useful, even when Steam is the main destination. Keep it simple: explain the game, show the strongest images or video, link clearly to Steam and give visitors an opportunity to join a newsletter. It also gives you somewhere to simplify the message for new visitors and A/B test different headlines, images or calls to action without changing the Steam page every time.
A mailing list, Discord server or developer community gives you a way to communicate with interested people without relying entirely on an algorithm. Encourage people to follow the project as well as wishlist it. Followers can be kept up to date with progress, while wishlists create a stronger Steam-based reminder for future milestones.
Invite people to follow the project because they want to see something specific: a new biome, a playable build, a behind-the-scenes explanation or a release milestone. Then give them useful updates rather than repeating “please wishlist my game”. When you publish a devlog, do not automatically focus on how you made a feature. Focus on what makes the feature fun, surprising, useful or exciting for the viewer. Many developers accidentally promote their game to other developers because they explain implementation details that players do not care about.
The community does not need to be huge. A small group that understands the game can provide feedback, share posts with the right audience and become a reliable source of early players. The long-term value is the relationship, not just the number of people in the server.
7. Pitch creators who already reach your audience
Creators can put your game in front of people who are already interested in its genre, format or style. Start with smaller and mid-sized creators whose audiences look relevant, rather than sending the same message to every large channel.
Give each creator a short, personal pitch that explains why the game might fit their audience. Include the Steam page, demo or press materials, the planned timing and anything they need to know about access. Make it easy to ignore the offer without creating pressure.
A creator mention may generate wishlists immediately, but it can also produce useful feedback about your store page and trailer. Track creator links where possible and compare traffic quality, not just views. One well-matched video can be more valuable than a much larger but irrelevant audience.
8. Use communities and events where your game genuinely belongs
Post about the game in communities that welcome development updates, demos or recommendations, and follow each community’s rules. Contribute before asking for attention. A post that explains a design problem, shows an interesting result or invites useful feedback is usually stronger than a bare promotional link.
Local showcases, online festivals, genre events, game jams and specialist Discord servers can also help. Some opportunities are free; others involve a submission fee, travel or preparation time. Choose events based on audience fit and the quality of the interaction they enable, not just the size of the logo.
The goal is not to place the game everywhere. It is to find the places where people are already interested in the subject and give them a reason to care about this particular game.
A good example is Taival, whose developers noticed that the Cube World Reddit community was starved of fresh content for a game that had inspired them. They shared clear gameplay screenshots, explained their personal journey and included a direct link to the store page in a post about how Cube World had influenced the project. That timing and context generated early interest in the campaign and helped turn attention into wishlists. Read the original Reddit post.
The lesson is not to copy the post or target unrelated communities. It is to notice where an audience is already looking for something, then give them a genuine and relevant reason to care about your game.
9. Use press and paid promotion selectively
Press outreach can work when you have a clear story: an unusual development challenge, a distinctive setting, a meaningful accessibility feature, a strong visual hook or a timely announcement. Do not send a generic press release to every outlet. Explain why the game is relevant to that journalist or publication now.
Paid promotion can accelerate a message that is already working. It cannot reliably rescue a store page that does not convert or an unclear game concept. Start with a small test, use a trackable destination and measure Steam page visits, wishlists and cost per wishlist where the data is reliable.
Treat paid advertising as a test rather than a purchase of guaranteed results. A campaign that generates cheap clicks but no wishlists is not successful merely because the dashboard looks busy.
10. Create a launch plan that gives people several reasons to act
Your first 1,000 wishlists will usually come from several waves rather than one announcement. Plan a sequence around moments such as:
- The public Steam page going live
- A first gameplay trailer
- A demo release
- A festival or showcase appearance
- A creator outreach wave
- A major development milestone
- A launch-date announcement
- A final pre-release push
Each wave should add something new. If every post uses the same screenshot and message, even interested people will stop paying attention.
Use Steam’s wishlist reports and traffic tools to compare what happened after each activity. The Steamworks wishlist reporting tools track wishlist additions, purchases and deletions, and provide regional information for the game.
Hot take: you need both Steam and external marketing
Steam and external marketing do different jobs.
Steam’s internal opportunities include your Coming Soon page, store search and browsing, event participation, demos, personalized discovery and notifications to existing wishlisters. These channels can be powerful, but you do not control when every player sees the game.
External marketing includes creators, social video, communities, press, mailing lists, cross-promotion and paid advertising. These channels let you choose the audience and message more directly, but they require consistent work and do not automatically produce high-quality traffic.
The sensible approach is not to choose one side. Use external marketing to create awareness and send qualified people to Steam. Then use the Steam page, demo and wishlist system to capture that interest and give it a useful next step. Different games will need different mixes of channels, budgets and time, so there is no universal ratio between internal and external traffic.
What should a developer do first?
If you have no audience and no budget, start with the store page, a repeatable short-form content routine, relevant communities and direct creator outreach. These methods cost time, but they also help you learn who responds to the game.
If you have a demo, use it as a reason to run a coordinated campaign rather than quietly publishing it. If you have a budget, reserve part of it for testing and measurement instead of spending everything on one large placement.
Most importantly, do not judge the whole marketing plan by one slow week. Look for evidence: which messages earn clicks, which audiences stay engaged, which creators generate qualified traffic and which store-page changes improve the rate at which visitors wishlist the game.
Getting the first 1,000 wishlists on Steam is a useful milestone, but it is not a magic threshold. Build the audience, improve the page, learn from each campaign and keep giving interested players a clear reason to follow the game. The developers who make steady progress are often the ones who pay attention to timing, audience fit and the quality of the reason they are giving people to click.