Once Human is a big hit at Steam Next Fest, but wishlists are a drop in the bucket

NetEase's upcoming third-person shooter, Once Human, has achieved remarkable success, boasting over 15 million pre-registrations globally. The game's strong showing at Steam Next Fest further highlights its appeal. However, a closer look reveals a significant disparity between its overall pre-registration numbers and its Steam wishlist count—a mere 300,000. This discrepancy underscores the challenges of achieving comparable levels of discoverability and popularity on PC compared to mobile, particularly for a developer like NetEase with a strong mobile gaming background.

While Once Human's Steam Next Fest performance was impressive, attracting the most demo players, the vast difference in pre-registration numbers between the PC and mobile platforms highlights a key challenge in the gaming market. NetEase's strategic focus on a PC-first release for Once Human, while ambitious, showcases the inherent difficulties in translating mobile success to the PC platform.

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This isn't to criticize NetEase's strategy; targeting a PC audience is a valid and potentially lucrative goal. However, the data clearly illustrates the significant disparity in audience reach and discoverability between PC and mobile gaming. Even a major developer like NetEase faces considerable hurdles in replicating its mobile success on the PC platform.

While you wait for Once Human's release, explore our curated lists of the best and most anticipated mobile games of 2024. These lists offer a diverse range of high-quality mobile games to keep you entertained.