Steam Achievements - Very popular games yet low percentage of players doing basic things?

[ianh]

Hi All,

After the Xmas Steam Sale I've been playing Hitman 2, a game which has had over 350,000 concurrent users playing it in one month so relatively popular, yet when I get what seems to be a "basic" Steam Achievement ("Complete training" or "Finish Mission 1" etc) it's saying that <10% of the total player base has got the same one, meaning that 90%+ of players haven't done some of the most basic parts of the game.

I had the same with RDR2, Death Loops etc - very popular games but with with 10-25% of players never completing some of the basics in-game and I find that odd. I mean I know some number of players won't like a game after buying it and thats only to be expected, but seeing such high numbers not even finishing something as early as "complete training" etc is just odd.

What popular games have you played and, when you've gained a fairly basic achievement, seen that only a hand-full of the total player base has got the same achievement?

 

[Tombstone]

I've always assumed that either the Achievement reporting is broken or that there are just a lot of people who own a lot of games on Steam that they have never actually played. Here's an example, Subnautica. Massively popular game right, VERY few people who have played Subnautica didnt like it. Yet only 80% have completed the "take your first dive" achievement.

That means that 1 in 5 people who own Subnautica havent even gone into the water in the game.

 

[ttaskmaster]

What popular games have you played and, when you've gained a fairly basic achievement, seen that only a hand-full of the total player base has got the same achievement?

I've got a whole bunch of them in HALO, where fewer than 10% of players have it... in many cases fewer than 5%.

 

[ianh]

That means that 1 in 5 people who own Subnautica havent even gone into the water in the game.

Thats the sort of crazy stuff I'm seeing too! I mean I can understand people playing say 10 minutes and then deciding "Nope, not for me" but for 20% to not even get in the water is crazy

 

[VincentHanna]

Because they haven't even played it...

 

[Craig R]

Maybe it's like people who collect trainers.

They never actually wear them but just like having them sitting there.

 

[Angilion]

I've always assumed that either the Achievement reporting is broken or that there are just a lot of people who own a lot of games on Steam that they have never actually played. Here's an example, Subnautica. Massively popular game right, VERY few people who have played Subnautica didnt like it. Yet only 80% have completed the "take your first dive" achievement.

That means that 1 in 5 people who own Subnautica havent even gone into the water in the game.

There might be something else as well - some people play in offline mode. I've no idea how many, but they wouldn't have any achievements. I think the two reasons you gave cover most of it, though.

 

[Rroff]

I noticed it with Cyberpunk 2077 - it has gone up a bit now but for a long time after launch some of the most basic, can't really avoid doing them early on, achievements were showing as like 6% of the players had it.

 

[Kronos]

I never go after achievements, if they happen fine but as far as I am concerned they add nothing to the game. Same with the cards that some games give these are just a nuisance as all I do is waste time sticking them on the marketplace.

 

[Jonny2284]

Not claiming this accounts for all of it, but I've got a few games where certain achievements glitch and don't unlock.

Like my Shadow of War run, for whatever reason none of the early game achievements didn't unlock but late game ones did, and even now when I did a second playthrough they never did so I will never unlock certain achievments.

Ditto a few games that I played before they added achievements (early access seems to be especially bad for this) where I'm not playing again for meaningless e-points so I'll forever be bumping up the percentage of players who never unlocked things.

 

[ic1male]

How does Steam get its total? Does it count everyone who has a licence for the game in the achievements or just those who have played or launched it? I wouldn't be surprised if a ton of people have tried starting games on their laptops with iGPUs and found them to be a stuttery mess and immediately quit.

 

[wnb]

Don't some poeple buy games in other countries for peanuts and then sell the account on for profits?

 

[HangTime]

Is the percentage based on people who own the game or have actually played the game? The two are quite different, I mean I haven't played over half my Steam library for example. Actually a quick bit of research turned up this: https://steamcommunity.com/stats/848550/achievements/ - only 62.5% of 'players' have the achievement for having launched the game.
Bear in mind if it's a new game recently been on sale there could be a whole bunch of people who bought it on offer but haven't got started yet.
Finally it might be a privacy setting whereby players choose to block their achievements being published, this might mean it gets excluded from the stats.

 

[SPG]

I can't understand the point in them. Pointless fluff to me.

 

[Columbo]

I can't understand the point in them. Pointless fluff to me.

Acheivements on their own absolutely agree , but some of em give you trading cards which are far from pointless.
I sell them on the Steam Marketplace for essentially free Steam credit, I've never understood why people buy em but they do and I just use the Steam Credit to buy game with in Steam sales, just before this last sale I had nearly £50 in credit just from selling trading cards earned while playing the games I own.

 

[Grim5]

I only do achievements on console, on pc I don't give a crap. It's steams own fault their software system is very stupid and it's far away from what the consoles do

 

[PinkFloyd]

Think a lot of it is just people who have grabbed the games they want in a Sale at a reduced price (or received as a gift), but are yet to actually play it. I've got 4-5 "big" titles sitting in my Steam library completely unplayed right now.

 

[SixTwoSix]

Acheivements on their own absolutely agree , but some of em give you trading cards which are far from pointless.

I thought trading cards were just based on time in game, not achievements?

 

[Columbo]

I thought trading cards were just based on time in game, not achievements?

Cant say I'm 100% sure tbh just presumed they were achievement based.. They just pop up on my screen and then into my inventory whenever I'm playing so I just sell em as soon they appear.

 

[FrozenShivers]

Cant say I'm 100% sure tbh just presumed they were achievement based.. They just pop up on my screen and then into my inventory whenever I'm playing so I just sell em as soon they appear.

They have no link at all to achievements. They're random drops whilst the game is open. You can have a game on pause and collect trading cards.