[{"cid":60323,"parent_cid":null,"body":"Steam nerfed popular upcoming. So what?\r\n\r\nhttps://www.alicegg.tech//2026/06/12/popular-upcoming.html\r\n\r\nvia Alice GG","created_at":"2026-06-12T23:41:50.319Z","tags":["blog","bot","alice_gg"],"orgs":[],"usrs":[],"created_by":"bot_blogs","thumb":"https://www.alicegg.tech/assets/2026-06-12-popular-upcoming/popular-upcoming.jpg","c_comments":1,"c_reactions":"","c_flags":0,"links":[],"flaggers":[],"author_ups":16,"author_downs":7,"author_posts_count":1047,"tag_ups":446,"tag_downs":77,"domain_ups":0,"domain_downs":0,"score":"2026-06-10T18:12:57.389Z","repost_ups":0,"mentions":[],"domains":["alicegg.tech"],"comments":"1","reaction_count":"0","reaction_counts":{},"user_reactions":[],"child_comments":[{"cid":60328,"body":"> # [Alice GG • Steam nerfed popular upcoming. So what?](https://www.alicegg.tech//2026/06/12/popular-upcoming.html)\r\n>\r\n> In the latest Steam client update, Valve unveiled major changes to its store’s home page. One of the main difference is that the “Popular Upcoming” section, which shows upcoming games now shows a lot fewer titles. This seems to worry indie developers who relied on this section as a major driver of visibility before launch. I personally think this is will not change much to how indie games are marketed and might even be a positive for many niche developers.\r\n>\r\n> ## Popular upcoming is dead\r\n>\r\n> Game development is more accessible than ever, and anyone can post their games on Steam and Epic. All those new developers needing to market their games has created a cottage industry of game marketing influencers. The strategy they teach is basically always a variant of:\r\n>\r\n> - Make a game (and a demo)\r\n>\r\n> - Get a lot of people to play the demo during Steam Next Fest\r\n>\r\n> - Get 6000+ wishlists\r\n>\r\n> - Appear in Popular Upcoming\r\n>\r\n> - ???\r\n>\r\n> - Profit\r\n>\r\n> Since everyone is running around with approximately the same strategy, it became a very crowded trade. With demos getting more and more polished, Next Fest began to have diminishing returns for most developers. In the same way Popular Upcoming was very impactful when maybe 1 or 2 games appeared in it every day, but when it started showing a dozen game a day, it stopped being a guarantee of success.\r\n>\r\n> And let’s be honest, players have probably been paying less and less attention to this section of the store for a while. Unless they were really interested in finding out what every shovelware publisher has been working on.\r\n>\r\n> ## Long live the Personal Calendar\r\n>\r\n> In the same update, Valve introduced a new feature: the Personal Calendar. It’s a whole page which aims at making players discover games that are match their taste.\r\n>\r\n> The recommendation algorithm seems to work somewhat decently. I do not think it is entirely based on tags, since it seems to recommend me a lot of “Open World Survival Craft” games, which is not something I usually play. It may be using wishlist behavior of similar players to make recommendations.\r\n>\r\n> One of the major differences is that it shows a calendar for the next eight weeks, so games can have a much longer visibility window. If a player of your target audience didn’t browse Steam on the day before your launch, it would miss you on popular upcoming, while now they have six weeks to do that.\r\n>\r\n> It also shows recently released games, in the past 7 days and past month. Contrary to the homepage “Popular New Releases” tab (ex “New & Trending”), which requires a lot of active players, this section seems accessible even to unknown games. Steam is currently recommending me Imago Season with (at the moment of writing) 0 review and only 2 concurrent players.\r\n>\r\n> ## A new era for niche games?\r\n>\r\n> Before this change, it was extremely difficult for developers to market niche games. I know it from first-hand experience, since I have no doubt Dice ‘n Goblins would have been easier to market if it was not the weirdest combination of ideas possible.\r\n>\r\n> Because of this, a lot of new indie game developers were advised to stick to a popular genre. You love real-time strategy? Too bad, you’ll have to make an action roguelike instead.\r\n>\r\n> This has caused a loss of creativity in the indie game world. With many developers working on genres that do not interest them, using recycled ideas and aesthetics.\r\n>\r\n> …","orgs":[],"tags":["blog","bot","alice_gg"],"usrs":[],"c_flags":0,"comments":0,"created_at":"2026-06-12T23:42:11.523723+00:00","created_by":"bot_reader","parent_cid":60323,"child_comments":[],"user_reactions":[],"reaction_counts":{}}]}]