GameDiscoverCo surveyed 16,152 Steam players worldwide. Respondents could select multiple answers to the question of how they discover games. GameDiscoverCo notes that its sample likely has fewer casual players than the market as a whole.
All Players
Steam players most often learn about new games from long-form YouTube videos (57%). Steam itself, with its recommendations, is second (55.8%).
Word of mouth is third: 44.9% of respondents learn about games from people they know.
37.5% of players use short-form video like TikTok and Reels, and 35.2% use streams on Twitch and YouTube.
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Traditional games media websites (PC Gamer, Rock Paper Shotgun) are at 27.9%. Forums like Reddit and text-based social media (X, Bluesky) are slightly lower, at 27.5% each.
Discord and other chat platforms are the least common way to find games, at 17.9%.
Differences by Age
The role of short-form video changes the most with age. For players under 18, it is the second most important channel (53.5%), ahead of even Steam itself (53.1%). Among players aged 45-54, only 20.2% use short-form video, which puts it second to last.
Word of mouth and Steam barely depend on age: in most groups, they are at ~45% and ~55%, respectively. Word of mouth drops noticeably only among players aged 45-54 (35.7%).
Traditional games media, on the other hand, matter more to older players. Among players aged 45-54, 42.5% find games through gaming websites, compared with 21.2% of players under 18.
Streams are most popular among players aged 25-34 (38.7%). Among players under 18, it’s 30.8%, and among those aged 45-54, 28.2%.
Players aged 18-24 use text-based social media like X and Bluesky the most (31.8%). Among players under 18, it’s only 21.4%.
Younger players use chat platforms like Discord more often, and their role declines with age. Forums like Reddit show the opposite: players under 18 use them the least (19.6%), and players aged 35-44 the most (32%).
Players over 55 use almost all channels less often. GameDiscoverCo assumes they simply already know what they like. However, this group has only 303 respondents.
GameDiscoverCo concludes that how people discover games is different, and there is no single right way to reach an audience.
❗️It’s important to note that this is a snapshot of age groups at one point in time, not a trend over the years.
Example: Peak
GameDiscoverCo also looked separately at Peak players: almost 3,000 people who played the game for more than 30 minutes. The game’s audience is younger: the average age is 27, versus a median of 29.
Peak players find games more often through word of mouth (56.6% vs. 44.9% on average) and short-form video (48.3% vs. 37.5%). Through Steam, it’s 68% vs. 55.8%.
Chat platforms like Discord (25.8% vs. 17.9%) and text-based social media (38.3% vs. 27.5%) stand out the most. Traditional media and forums are about as popular among Peak players as on average.
GameDiscoverCo notes that players of popular new releases generally follow games more closely. That is why almost every channel is more popular among Peak players than average.