How to Get Players for Your Game

Figuring out how to get players for your game is one of the hardest problems in the games industry right now (for several reasons). There are over 20,000 games released on Steam every year. Mobile stores add thousands more every month. Not to mention the growing backlog of games released during previous years, Live-Service games adding content updates etc. Players have more choices than ever, attention is fragmented across dozens of platforms, and paid acquisition costs have climbed sharply. Getting your game in front of the right people, and keeping them there, takes a lot more than a launch day trailer.

This guide walks you through a practical, stage-by-stage playbook for building a player base that grows with your game. Whether you’re a solo dev working on your first title or a mid-size team preparing for a major launch, these are the strategies that actually move the needle.

Why Most Studios Struggle to Find Players#

The core problem isn’t visibility. It’s timing. Most studios start thinking about player acquisition far too late, usually in the months (or god forbid, weeks) leading up to launch. By then, the window to build organic momentum has already passed.

Steam’s algorithm weighs wishlist velocity heavily. Games that have been accumulating wishlists steadily over months perform significantly better than those that spike right around release. Games that launch with fewer than 500 reviews in their first two weeks rarely break into Steam’s “Popular Upcoming” or “New and Trending” feeds, which are the primary discovery surfaces for most players.

There’s also the platform fragmentation challenge. Your players might be on TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, Reddit, Discord, or all of the above. Reaching them consistently requires a plan, not just a burst of activity at launch.

Step 1: Start Earlier Than You Think#

The single most effective thing you can do is start building your audience in early development, not at launch. Studios that begin community building 12 to 18 months before release consistently outperform those that wait. That runway lets you accumulate wishlists, grow a Discord, and build relationships with creators before you’re racing against a deadline. This is more targeted towards first-time developers (or at least first-time under a specific studio name). If this is not your first game, first off, congrats! Hopefully this means you have already built and maintained a Discord, and have working relations with creators. If that’s the case, you should put energy into activating your established community (while growing it even further!).

Set up a “Coming Soon” Steam page the moment you can. Every wishlist you earn during development is a free notification sent to a potential player on launch day. Games like Dave the Diver and Baldur’s Gate 3 built massive wishlist counts over years before release, which gave their launch algorithms a significant head start.

Pick one or two platforms where your target players actually hang out. Rather than spreading thin across every social channel, go deep on the platforms that make sense for your genre. Shooters and competitive games tend to do well on Twitch and YouTube. Cozy games and narrative RPGs often find their audience on TikTok and Twitter/X. Strategy and sim fans gather on Reddit and Discord (but do your research).

Post in-development content consistently. Behind-the-scenes footage, devlogs, and “how we made this mechanic” posts consistently outperform polished marketing assets on most platforms. Players root for studios they feel a genuine connection with. The bar for content quality is much lower than most studios assume. Authenticity travels further than production value.

One useful benchmark: studios that post development content at least twice a week in the 6 months before launch see roughly 2 to 3x the wishlist growth of those posting less than once a week, according to community data tracked by first-look publisher networks. Consistency is the variable.

The format of your content also matters. Short-form video (60 to 90 seconds) tends to drive the most new followers on TikTok and Instagram Reels. Longer devlogs and “process” videos perform better on YouTube where players are actively searching. Text-based posts with strong hooks tend to do well on Reddit and Twitter/X, especially when they spark discussion. Matching format to platform is as important as showing up regularly.

Step 2: How to Get Players for Your Game With Creators#

Creator and influencer campaigns are one of the most reliable ways to drive wishlists, early access sign-ups, and direct sales. But the approach matters a lot.

Macro-influencers (1M+ subscribers) generate reach. Micro-influencers (10K to 100K) generate trust. For most studios, micro and mid-tier creators deliver the best return because their audiences are highly engaged and genuinely follow their recommendations. If the creator is a good fit, don’t be scared to work with even smaller creators - trust me, they will appreciate it.

A few things studios consistently get wrong with creator campaigns:

Sending keys without context. A creator who receives a bare Steam key with no brief and no suggested angle is unlikely to prioritize your game. Give them something to work with. A one-page doc covering the core gameplay hook, what’s unique, and what kind of content tends to perform well goes a long way.

Ignoring niche creators. A creator with 10,000 subscribers who focuses exclusively on turn-based strategy can be worth more to a turn-based studio than a 100,000-subscriber general gaming channel. Niche alignment matters far more than raw subscriber count.

Treating campaigns as one-time pushes. The studios that do creator marketing well build ongoing relationships. Regular updates, early access to new content, and genuine community involvement keep creators engaged between campaigns and turn them into long-term advocates rather than one-and-done reviewers - nowadays this is commonly known as a Creator Program.

Data from the games industry shows that creator-driven wishlists convert to sales at roughly 12 to 20%, compared to around 5 to 10% for paid ad traffic. That’s a meaningful difference that compounds significantly at scale.

When briefing creators, frame your game around the experience, not the feature list. “A 30-hour mystery where every NPC can die permanently” lands better than “narrative RPG with permadeath mechanics.” Help them feel excited, and that excitement translates on camera.

Step 3: Optimize Your Steam Store Page Before Driving Any Traffic#

This is where a lot of studios leak players without realizing it. You can do everything else right and still underperform if your store page doesn’t convert the traffic you worked hard to earn.

Steam’s own research suggests that capsule art (the banner image in search results) is the single biggest driver of click-through rate. If your capsule looks generic, cluttered, or doesn’t communicate genre at a glance, players scroll past.

Capsule art: Single focal character or scene, readable at thumbnail size, clear genre signals. Avoid text-heavy designs that become illegible at small sizes. Think about how your capsule looks in a grid of 20 similar games on someone’s screen.

Trailer: Your first 30 seconds need to show actual gameplay. Cinematic openers that delay gameplay footage consistently underperform trailers that lead with what the game feels like to play. Respect the player’s time upfront.

Screenshots: Show the most visually impressive and representative moments from your game. Avoid menu screens, UI-heavy interfaces, or cutscenes unless the visual style is genuinely the selling point. **GOOD TO KNOW: **When Steam sends marketing emails (A game on your wishlist is on sale, available now, demo available etc) they pick from your first 5 Screenshots. With this info you can strategically use the best screenshots not only for your Steam page, but through the lens of marketing as well.

Description: Lead with genre, tone, and core loop. The first two sentences are what most players read before deciding whether to wishlist or leave. Get to the point quickly.

Tags: Steam’s algorithm uses tags to surface your game in relevant searches and “More Like This” sections. Make sure your top tags accurately reflect your genre, mechanics, and mood. Incorrect or misleading tags hurt discoverability and lead to negative reviews from mismatched audiences.

A/B testing your capsule art is one of the highest-leverage actions you can take. Even a 5% improvement in click-through rate compounds into a significant lift in organic wishlist velocity over time. Some studios have seen 30 to 40% improvements in clicks just from replacing their initial capsule with a more genre-readable version.

Step 4: Run Playtests That Turn Players Into Advocates#

Playtests aren’t just for QA. They’re one of the most underused player acquisition tools available to any studio.

A well-run playtest gives you early retention data (more on that shortly), but it also creates a group of players who feel genuine ownership over your game’s development. Players who helped shape a game are far more likely to wishlist it, recommend it to friends, and post about it organically at launch.

The key is structure. Here’s what separates playtests that generate community from those that just generate bug reports.

Make access feel exclusive. Whether you’re running a closed beta or a small playtest cohort, players value access they had to earn or apply for. This creates a positive association from the moment they join, before they’ve even played a minute.

Close the feedback loop publicly. After your playtest, share what you heard and what you’re changing because of it. A simple “You told us the tutorial was confusing, so here’s what we changed” post on Discord builds enormous goodwill and demonstrates that the studio actually listens.

Keep playtesters engaged post-test. Invite them to a dedicated Discord channel, add them to an early access list, and give them first look at major updates. These players become your most effective word-of-mouth advocates because they have a story: “I played this game when it was in development and watched it grow.”

Studios that run structured playtests through dedicated platforms (rather than ad-hoc Google Form signups) see significantly better community engagement leading into launch. The infrastructure you put around the playtest shapes how players feel about the studio as much as the game itself does.

Step 5: Build a Community Hub Players Actually Come Back To#

Getting players into your community is step one. Keeping them there long enough to turn them into loyal advocates is where most studios drop the ball.

Discord is the default for most studios, and for good reason. But a Discord server with no structure, no active moderation, and no regular programming goes quiet fast. Here’s what actually sustains community momentum.

Set clear channel structure from day one. New members should immediately understand where to post bugs, where to share fan art, where to find development updates, and where to just hang out. A chaotic server feels unwelcoming and people leave quickly.

Run regular programming. Weekly dev Q&A sessions, community polls, playtest sign-up drops, and “ask us anything” threads give people reasons to check back. Consistency matters more than the frequency of posts.

Celebrate your community members. Feature fan art in your dev updates. Give shoutouts to active members. Name NPCs or in-game items after community contributors when you can. This kind of recognition is essentially free and is remarkably effective at building long-term loyalty.

Don’t let the conversation die between announcements. The studios with the healthiest Discord communities share things between major milestones: small dev updates, polls, early screenshots, or just genuine conversation with the team. The goal is to feel like a place, not a broadcast channel.

A community that feels alive is also social proof for new players who discover it. When a curious player joins your Discord and sees an active, welcoming community, that’s a signal that converts.

Step 6: How to Get Players for Your Game Using Retention Data#

Getting players is only half the question. The other half is keeping them. And for that, you need data.

The standard benchmarks for game retention are D1 (Day 1), D7 (Day 7), and D30 (Day 30) rates. These measure what percentage of players who start your game are still playing after one day, one week, and one month respectively.

Benchmarks vary by genre, but here are useful reference points for PC and console titles:

Strong D1 retention sits around 35 to 45%. D7 retention drops considerably, with solid performers holding around 15 to 25%. D30 retention is where most games see steep drop-off, and holding 8 to 15% is considered healthy for non-live service titles.

Mobile benchmarks are tighter. Top-performing mobile games hit D1 around 40%, D7 around 20%, and D30 around 10%, according to industry research from Adjust and AppsFlyer.

What do you do with this data? You find the drop-off points. If you’re losing 60% of players on Day 1, your onboarding experience (also called FTUE, or First Time User Experience) has a problem. If you’re retaining well through Day 7 but seeing a cliff at Day 14, there may be a progression or content pacing issue to investigate.

Retention data also helps you identify your power users, the players who return again and again. These are the people you want in your playtest cohort, rewarding in your community, and engaging with directly. They’re your game’s most effective unpaid advocates, and they’re worth more to your long-term growth than any paid campaign.

Step 7: Layer in Paid Channels at the Right Moment#

Paid acquisition isn’t the first thing you should invest in, but it plays an important role once the fundamentals are in place.

The mistake most studios make is running paid ads before understanding their conversion funnel. If your Steam page isn’t converting organic traffic effectively, paid traffic will just accelerate the spend without improving results.

Once your store page is optimized and you have organic traction to reference, paid channels worth testing include:

Meta (Facebook and Instagram): Still one of the most effective platforms for targeting by interest at scale. Works best for games with broad appeal or visually striking gameplay footage.

Reddit Ads: Underrated for niche genres. You can target specific gaming subreddits directly, which means your ad is appearing inside communities already self-selected around your genre.

YouTube Pre-Roll: Higher cost, but strong for driving traffic when you have genuinely compelling gameplay footage to lead with.

TikTok Spark Ads: If you’re already generating organic TikTok content that performs well, boosting it through Spark Ads amplifies existing momentum rather than starting from scratch.

CPIs vary widely by genre and platform. Mobile action games average around $2 to $4 CPI on Meta, while more niche genres like strategy and simulation can see CPIs of $5 to $15. For PC and console, $8 to $20 per wishlist via paid campaigns is a reasonable reference range for mid-tier studios. That said, your own funnel data will quickly tell you whether a channel is performing relative to organic alternatives.

Post-Launch: Player Acquisition Doesn’t Stop on Day One#

One of the most common (and most costly) mistakes studios make is treating launch day as the finish line for player acquisition. In reality, it’s the beginning of a new phase.

Steam’s algorithm continues to factor in ongoing sales velocity, review counts, and update frequency long after launch. Games that stay active, pushing updates, running events, and engaging the community, consistently outperform those that go quiet after the launch window.

Respond to every review in the first two weeks. This sends a signal to the algorithm, but more importantly it tells prospective buyers that there’s an active team behind the game. Players read developer responses when making purchase decisions.

Announce major updates as full events. Steam Events get their own visibility in the activity feed and send notifications to players who have the game in their wishlist or library. Don’t patch quietly when you could be creating visibility.

Run a launch discount at the 2 to 4 week mark. Steam’s algorithm gives a brief visibility boost to games running a sale. A 10 to 20% discount at this stage can re-activate lapsed wishlists and pull in price-sensitive buyers who were on the fence at full price.

Stay genuinely active in your community. The players who are already engaged are your best ambassadors for reaching new players. They’ll recommend the game in subreddits, share clips on social media, and write reviews if you give them reasons to stay excited about what’s coming.

Track where your post-launch players are coming from. Whether it’s a YouTube video that picked up steam three weeks after launch, a Reddit thread, or a creator post, knowing your referral sources helps you double down on what’s working and cut what isn’t. Studios that track this data consistently make smarter decisions about where to put their time and budget in the months after launch.

Build the Infrastructure for Sustainable Player Growth#

Getting players is a process, not a single moment. The studios that do it well over the long term build systems around it: a structured playtest process, an active community hub, a player CRM for tracking and engaging your audience, and a content engine that sustains momentum between major milestones.

FirstLook.gg is built specifically for game studios who want to take player growth seriously. It gives your team the tools to run structured playtests, build and manage your player community, track engagement data by segment, and connect with creators and players who are actively looking for new games to get behind before launch.

More than 100 studios are already using FirstLook to grow their communities before and after launch. If you’re ready to build a player acquisition engine that actually works, get started with FirstLook.gg today.