Player retention
How many of a game's launch players were still playing later: its average players 3 and 12 months after launch as a share of its average at launch, and how that compares with every other game we can score.
How it is calculated
From the same months as the Players By Month table: archive months before October 2026, our own averages after. The launch month is the game's first month with at least a tenth of the players of its busiest month in its first year, so a small playtest before release is passed over; Early Access games count from when Early Access began. The launch average is the higher of that month and the month after, so a release late in a month is not undercounted. The 3-month share is the average in the third calendar month after the launch month divided by the launch average; the 12-month share the same for the twelfth. Only complete months are used. A game is ranked against every game scored for the same mark: "better than 70%" means 70% of those games kept a smaller share.
- Window
- Launch month, and the calendar months 3 and 12 months after it
- Unit
- % kept
- Definition version
- 1, from 29 October 2026
Caveats
- Counts people running the game through Steam only. Players on other stores, consoles or launchers are not included.
- Only games whose monthly players reach back to their launch are scored: mostly our most played games released since July 2012, and every game released from October 2026 once three months have passed.
- Games averaging under 20 players at launch are not scored, since a handful of players would swing the share.
- Over 100% means the game grew after launch, as games that go free to play, leave Early Access or take off later often do.
- Monthly averages: a launch week's peak counts for less than it felt like.
Source
Steam Web API, ISteamUserStats/GetNumberOfCurrentPlayers (documentation, terms). Data from Steam. Not affiliated with Valve.