Know whether a Steam discount worked, and why players refund.
SteamStats reads your Steamworks sales report every 4 h on Indie and every 60 min on Studio and Publisher. It compares units sold today with the last seven days at the same hour, measures units per day before, during and after each discount, and shows the refund rate with the reasons players give.
Last reviewed · SteamStats team
The discount check on a demo game
Did the discount work?
- During2,682a day · 14 days from launch
- After941a day · 7 days
Refunds 3.54%Not fun 42.35%Other issues 21.31%Purchased by accident 10.35%
Pebblewick, the fictional demo game, launched with a −10.00% discount from 25 Sep – 8 Oct. It sold 2,682 units a day during the discount and 941 a day in the week after it. Because the discount started on launch day, there is no week before it to compare with, and the Before cell says so. Its refund rate is 3.54%, and the most common reason is "Not fun" at 42.35% of refunds.
What you see
- Sold today: units so far, the usual range for this hour, and how many a usual day has sold by now.
- Net to studio today, sales speed per day over the last 7 days, the refund rate, and net to studio since launch.
- Sales by hour: today's running total, or units per hour, against the last 7 days at the same hour.
- A live map of where today's sales come from, and units by country since launch, each country's share of sales next to its share of wishlists.
- Did the discount work?: units per day since launch with each discount shaded, and the average day before, during and after it.
- Where buyers come from: units bought from a wishlist, units bought without one, and wishlists still waiting, with the next chance to convert them.
- Why they refund: the most common refund reasons over the last 30 days, Steam's refund window, and the share of all players whose playtime is still inside it.
- Bundles the game has sold in since launch.
How the discount check works
- A discount window is a run of consecutive days at the same discount.
- Before is the average units per day over the 7 complete days before the window. If those days would reach back past launch, there is no Before cell and During is marked from launch.
- During is the average units per day inside the window, and After the average over the 7 complete days after it.
- The pills on During and After compare each with Before, so a discount that only pulled sales forward shows a low After.
The refund rate is refunded units divided by units sold over the same days. The tile turns to a warning when it passes the organization's warning line.
Steam allows a new discount only after a cooldown since the last one, and Steam's seasonal sales are exempt from it. The calendar shows when the next discount is allowed.
Where the numbers come from
Units, revenue and refunds come from the Steamworks sales report, read with your own Steamworks key. They refresh every 4 h on Indie and every 60 min on Studio and Publisher, so Indie sees the day every 4 h and Studio every 60 min. Refund reasons and playtime come from Steamworks partner reports collected by the SteamStats browser extension; without it, those two cards stay hidden.
What it does not do
- It does not change prices or schedule discounts in Steamworks.
- All money is shown in US dollars, as Steamworks reports it.
- Before launch there is nothing to show; the page says sales start on launch day.
Plans
Sales need a connected Steamworks key, so they are part of Indie, Studio, and Publisher. Radar has no sales data.
Invite-only beta · free for invited studios
Sources
- Discounting (Steamworks Documentation) · checked November 1, 2026