There was a time where I was a chronic pre-orderer. If a videogame was coming out, I would buy it months in advance. I eagerly awaited its release date—and back when I was a console gamer, I crossed my fingers and hoped that a physical copy would slide into my letterbox a couple days early.
These days I’m… well, I’m a lot stingier. Pre-ordering has become something I do rarely, and my Steam wishlist has basically become my way of being notified when something I want to play has dropped in price enough for me to scoop it up. As it turns out, a lot of you are right there with me.
I polled you all last week on your Steam spending habits, and 25% of you say that you never pay full price for a game these days. Instead, you’ll wait for a Steam sale or similar price drop, fully flexing those patient gaming muscles.
That wasn’t the majority vote, though! Over half of you (that’ll be 51%) do still buy some games at full price, but only when you’re super excited about an upcoming release. I think this is definitely where me and most of my pals fall—I know for a fact a bunch of them bought Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 when it first came out, and I am drowning in a sea of friends who have been sinking $60 on Forza Horizon 6 over the last week.
18% of you tend to be a bit more generous when it comes to cheaper indie games—saying that you’ll happily fork out full price if it’s sporting a more humble cost, but generally won’t go for the big $70 ones unless they’re on sale.
A teeny-tiny 4% of you said you buy most of your games at full price, which means I have to honour your dedication to the hobby. Even more dedicated are the 222 (a mere 3%) of you who claim to not only be buying games at full price, but are my past self—pre-ordering them for that sweet, sweet preload and minute-one gaming.
Didn’t get a chance to vote on the poll, or want to explain your vote a little more? Make sure to drop a comment and let us know how willing you are to spend the big bucks. And if you’re itching to lend your opinion to another poll, I’ve handily popped one into this piece (see above). Since we’re halfway through the year, there’s plenty of banger games that could already be GOTY. If you’ve got a personal fave game of 2026 already, drop a vote and let us know which one it is.
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