Is Valve faking Steam's Top Sellers?

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Thuleman

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Right now the Skyrim Legendary edition is listed as the #1 top seller at a price point of $35.99.

The way I interpret top sellers is that the title is currently outselling all other offers on Steam.

The thing that makes me question this is that those folks who had the hots for Skyrim have already purchased it years ago and would not be inclined to dump 36 bucks into it again. Those same people would have bought the expansions as they came out.

This means that right now, NEW Skyrim players are purchasing the title at a rate that is outselling all other sales games (you know, those games were you can buy 10 of them for the price of the Skyrim Legendary edition!) on Steam.

I call bullshit, and frankly I am offended by such blatant attempted manipulation of the stats.
 
I would buy the Oblivion Digital Collectors Edition(Or w/e it is called) too, even though I have Oblivion and the two expansions(not the DLC). It's just easier to have it all bundled together sometimes, and some people didn't buy any of the DLC's for skyrim. Not everyone bought skyrim either.
 
I would just like to point out that no where does it say skyrim is the number one seller just because it is listed first. All is says is best sellers and lists a bunch of games, that doesn't mean they are in any kind of order.
 
The top seller list is by $ generated by a title. So a game that is $5 would have to sell 4 copies to equal a game that is $20 and sells 1 copy.

As for Skyrim. Tons of people hold out for the "GOTY" versions of games to get the game and all the DLC now for cheaper. I have a ton of people on my friends list that have done the same and even a large amount of those people are waiting for it to get cheaper because they already waited this long.
 
This thread is about as pointless as whatever Valve is doing to determine what qualifies a title as a "Top Seller"...
 
Thuleman said:
I call bullshit, and frankly I am offended by such blatant attempted manipulation of the stats.
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You're offended by your own theory that Valve is being dishonest.

Now's about the time to start thinking about your available treatment options.
 
As has been mentioned, the order is determined by revenue, not the number of copies sold. Taking that into consideration, it's quite easy to accept Skyrim as being the top seller. Also, consider that since it has been released, Skyrim has been in the weekly bestsellers list ALMOST EVERY SINGLE WEEK on Steam. With that additional information, it makes your accusation fall into tinfoil hat conspiracy territory.

Besides, things that are selling well sell even better when people see it's popular. It's in Valve's best interest monetarily to show which games are selling the best...it will result in even more sales for that item.
 
There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission
 
The ranking is by revenue and does not include retail activations (this means all key based activations, like game bundles, physical, other stores. So only direct Steam purchases) -

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=24482701#post24482701

Also you need to consider that the other games on the list are not exactly hot new games either. The same goes with other games being currently featured in a sale.

In terms of the overall profile of games currently on sale the only other high profile one is Civilization 5 which is even older. Maybe Portal 2 to some extent if you want to count the flash deal.

The other thing to consider is what the time period being measured is exactly. I do not know the specific number but it does not seem to be that long. For sure it is not best selling over the last week in terms of time.
 
Thuleman said:
Right now the Skyrim Legendary edition is listed as the #1 top seller at a price point of $35.99.

The way I interpret top sellers is that the title is currently outselling all other offers on Steam.

The thing that makes me question this is that those folks who had the hots for Skyrim have already purchased it years ago and would not be inclined to dump 36 bucks into it again. Those same people would have bought the expansions as they came out.

This means that right now, NEW Skyrim players are purchasing the title at a rate that is outselling all other sales games (you know, those games were you can buy 10 of them for the price of the Skyrim Legendary edition!) on Steam.

I call bullshit, and frankly I am offended by such blatant attempted manipulation of the stats.
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There is a huge hole in your theory. You could say the exact same thing about just every other game out there. The fact that it was such a popular game only lends more credence to why it would be a bestseller now, especially for those that weren't necessarily huge skyrim groupies, but now are willing to get all the perks for a lower price point.
 
There's nothing unusual about this at all...

Edit;
If it's an enigma you're after, look at minecraft sales. The numbers are absolutely ridiculous. It's cruising towards becoming the top selling PC game of all time...
 
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As for buying Skyrim if a person already owns it is possible gifting to friends or family as well. I use the steam sales a lot to buy gifts for birthday and Christmas gifts... :)
 
People are now interested in buying it because the terrible Skyrim jokes are finally over.
 
KaOTiK said:
As for Skyrim. Tons of people hold out for the "GOTY" versions of games to get the game and all the DLC now for cheaper. I have a ton of people on my friends list that have done the same and even a large amount of those people are waiting for it to get cheaper because they already waited this long.
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I, for one, am among those who have done just this. It was clear to me from Bethesda's history that they would release a handful of DLC, then stop making any more and release a GOTY version with all DLC included. At which point the community patches start rolling in to fix the hundreds of bugs that Bethesda typically never gets around to fixing. I have so much stuff in my backlog that I'm not even getting it now for $36; I'll probably wait until it's $25 or less.
 
KaOTiK said:
As for Skyrim. Tons of people hold out for the "GOTY" versions of games to get the game and all the DLC now for cheaper. I have a ton of people on my friends list that have done the same and even a large amount of those people are waiting for it to get cheaper because they already waited this long.
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I was going to say that myself. For anyone who's looking for the best bang for buck (which many people do), they will always wait for the GOTY edition. With a discount to top that, this is the good time to get it. So it's not surprising that many people are only buying it now.
 
Thuleman said:
I call bullshit, and frankly I am offended by such blatant attempted manipulation of the stats.
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You should suggest bullshit, and not jump to such a conclusion. Maybe a bit of homework would enlighten you. As I type this, nearly two years after Skyrim was released, it's the fourth most-played game on Steam. Back when it was released, it was the most-played game of all.

Frankly, I am offended by people who get an idea in their head and immediately react as if it's gospel truth without even doing basic checking to see if they themselves are full of shit.

Edit: And frankly, I'm most offended by the fact that Football Manager 2013 is the fifth-most played game on Steam. WTF people? o_O
 
KaOTiK said:
The top seller list is by $ generated by a title. So a game that is $5 would have to sell 4 copies to equal a game that is $20 and sells 1 copy.

As for Skyrim. Tons of people hold out for the "GOTY" versions of games to get the game and all the DLC now for cheaper. I have a ton of people on my friends list that have done the same and even a large amount of those people are waiting for it to get cheaper because they already waited this long.
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THIS. I don't own it yet and I would have gone for the base game in this sale IF it had gone below $20, which it hasn't. So, I'll wait. And if by the time the game gets into my price range the complete version is a better deal then I'll buy that.

I don't think $36 is anywhere near where that point is, but for some people it is.
 
what would be the point of lying on Valve's part?...to get people to buy more titles from the Best Seller list?...people don't base their purchase decision on what's selling best...the biggest factor is the price...the list is there only for show
 
Skyrim is a popular title. There are many people who are going to be buying it. No everyone buys every game day one.
 
polonyc2 said:
what would be the point of lying on Valve's part?...to get people to buy more titles from the Best Seller list?...people don't base their purchase decision on what's selling best...the biggest factor is the price...the list is there only for show
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If that were true the list wouldn't exist at all.
Most people are sheep, best seller lists exist very much because of the herd mentality.
"If it's a best seller it must be really good, so I am going to buy it as well."
 
Yea, Gabe is faking game sales stats. Gimme a break. He doesn't need to fake anything or please anyone by taking bribes, or show favoritism. His business is going great guns. His online business model is the envy of Microsoft and Sony and the future of retail game sales. He doesn't need to fake a thing. Gabe is sitting pretty.
 
The GOTY is on sale for $35? I'm in.
No way will I buy a SP game that is bound to have $50-$120 in DLC. But the GOTY, or Ultimate Edition, or whatever they call the Complete Edition these days for a decent price, sure, I'm on it..
 
socK said:
look at minecraft sales. The numbers are absolutely ridiculous. It's cruising towards becoming the top selling PC game of all time...
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doesn't surprise me, lots of young kids are getting into that, along with schools, old people... it's pretty wide-spread
 
alot of people were holding out for skyrim waiting for legendary to have all the dlc plus then for a steam sale with it.
 
There are millions and millions of gamers who do not have the time to play a lot of games and they were waiting for various games like skyrim to hit a certain price. I know a couple myself.

I think the OP just forgets that most of the world does not keep on the cutting edge of games. Heck there are probably many people who were waiting for a computer upgrade to play it.

The people who are serious about skyrim did buy it, you just forget how many people are not that serious but still would like to eventually play it.
 
I just bought it. The stock game with no DLC has been $60 for as long as I can remember, so the game with all the dlc for 36 is a good deal.
 
Spidey329 said:
Maybe he's German and it's just part of his accent? Always sounding angry ..
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LOL, I am actually German, how bizarre that you picked that nationality over any other potentially angry ones.

Other than that, just venting online so I don't have to IRL.
 
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