The accidental post or leak shows just how successful the new approach to its annual sale was for the company. Yup, they made a lot of moola on the Steam Winter Sale once again!
There’s no question that the Steam Summer and Winter Sales are fantastic ways to save money on games. I feel my wallet getting lighter just at the thought of the sales, but it’s just a great way to experience games I wouldn’t have otherwise. Some of my favourites of all time were purchased during these sales. So then what’s the big deal? For those that may not know, Valve decided to take a different approach to their Winter Sale this time around. The bi-annual Steam Sales typically had flash sales, ones that would last a few hours at drastically reduced prices, then go back from a 75%-off sale for example, back to a 30%-off sale. This time around, Valve decided to nix those.
…this new format would be a better way to serve customers that may only be able to visit Steam once or twice during the 13-day event
Now on to the numbers. According to the accidental post on the SteamVR website, the Sales brought it more customers, who viewed more pages, and purchased more items than ever before. The post is now removed from the site, but SteamDB site founder xPaw managed to save the info before it disappeared.
Just using the above chart as an example, you can see that the difference in something simple like Page Views jumped up significantly. In the Steam post, in response to the numbers and details released, they said:
In terms of revenue, the discount strategy and Discovery Queue usage resulted in a resounding success
A new Discovery Queue approach was also used, allowing users to flip through recommended games based on purchases and add them to their own Wishlist. While these games were not necessarily large discounts, Steam did say in the post that this new tactic was a huge success. Though not throwing out any particular sales numbers, they did confirm that page visits were up 400% from last year’s sale.
In terms of revenue, the discount strategy and Discovery Queue usage resulted in a resounding success.
Did you like the new approach Valve too with their bi-annual sale? How empty is your “Steam Wallet?”
