How to Play

Fantasy Steam League is a year-long game where you draft upcoming Steam releases and score points based on their real-world performance.

Quick Start

1 Create or join a league using an invite code from your friends.
2 Enter the Winter Draft Room when all players are present. The commissioner starts the draft.
3 Draft your picks in snake order — hit, bomb, seasonal games, and an alt backup.
4 Watch your scores grow as your games release and perform on Steam throughout the year.
5 Return for Summer and Fall drafts to expand your roster with new picks.

The Season

A season runs for one calendar year with three draft phases, each covering a portion of the year's releases.

Winter (Current)

Draft opens in December. Pick games releasing January – April.

Summer

Draft opens in April. Pick games releasing May – August.

Fall

Draft opens in August. Pick games releasing September – December.

Pick Types

Each draft uses a snake draft format.

Seasonal Picks

Your core picks. Choose games releasing within the current phase's window. These earn points based on real-world Steam performance.

All 3 drafts

Hit Pick

Your GOTY prediction. Pick any unreleased game from the entire year that you think will be the best performer.

First draft only

Bomb Pick

Pick a game you think will flop. If it underperforms relative to other games, the damage is distributed equally among all other players, reducing their scores.

First draft only

Alt Pick

Choose a game from the same seasonal window. Activates if one of your seasonal picks gets delisted from Steam (e.g., pulled before release to become an Epic exclusive).

All 3 drafts

Scoring

Scores update twice daily based on each game's real-world Steam performance. The system captures peak concurrent players during Steam's busiest hours for the most accurate data.

Daily Points Formula

Points use square-root scaling so breakout hits feel meaningfully different from average performers.

Sales Score sqrt(new copies) × 0.2

Player Score sqrt(peak CCU) × 0.15

Review Score sqrt(reviews) × ratio × 0.8

Time Multiplier

Days 0-14 (Launch Hype) 2.0x

Days 15-90 (The Season) 1.0x

Days 91-180 (Long Tail) 0.75x

Days 181+ (Legacy) 0.5x

Milestone Bonuses

One-time bonus points awarded when a game crosses a major threshold.

First 1,000 reviews +50

First 10,000 peak CCU +75

Very Positive (>80% positive, 200+ reviews) +30

Overwhelmingly Positive (>95% positive, 500+ reviews) +100

Breakout Bonus

If a game's peak CCU suddenly exceeds 3x its 7-day average, it earns a one-time +50 breakout bonus. Rewards picking sleeper hits that pop off.

Bomb Damage

Each day, the bomb threshold is set at the 25th percentile of all active games' daily scores. If a bomb game scores below this threshold, the difference is split equally among all other players as a penalty. The threshold adapts naturally as more games release throughout the season.

Winning

The player with the highest total score at the end of the season wins. Your total equals the sum of all your games' daily points plus any milestone and breakout bonuses, minus bomb damage received.

Bookmarks

Use the bookmark button on any game to save it to your list. Filter by "Bookmarked only" when browsing games or during the draft to quickly find your shortlist.

Inspiration

This game was heavily inspired by Fantasy Box Office —the fantasy sports game for movies (box office instead of Steam). If you love drafting and predicting real-world outcomes, check it out.