We analyzed 408 Steam games: only 2.8% of players finish them
Original data study of global achievement unlock rates and multi-store price history across the most-owned Steam games: how deep players really get, and how far prices really fall.
We pulled Steam's public global achievement statistics for 408 of the most-owned games on the platform, plus verified multi-store price history for 893 of them. The typical achievement is earned by one player in five, and the typical game is fully completed by fewer than three players in a hundred.
Headline numbers
| Metric | Value | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| Average achievements per game | 72.5 | 408 games |
| Average unlock rate (all achievements) | 20.2% | 408 games |
| Average rarest-achievement rate | 2.84% | 408 games |
| Games whose rarest achievement is under 5% | 85% (348/408) | 408 games |
| Games whose rarest achievement is under 1% | 31% (125/408) | 408 games |
| Average full price | $23.52 | 893 games |
| Average all-time-low price | $5.01 | 893 games |
| Average maximum discount ever reached | 78.6% | 893 games |
Finding 1: full completion is rare, and consistently so
The rarest achievement in a game is a practical ceiling on how many players fully completed it. Across the sample that ceiling averages 2.84%, and in 85% of games it sits under 5%. Full completion is not a common outcome — it is a niche activity even in beloved games.
Read the other direction, the average unlock rate of 20.2% says the typical achievement — including the ones handed out in the first hour — is earned by only one in five owners. That gap between "owns it" and "opened it" is the backlog, measured from the developer's side.
Finding 2: better-reviewed games are played deeper
Splitting the sample by Metacritic band shows a clean gradient:
| Critic score | Games | Average unlock rate |
|---|---|---|
| 85+ | 154 | 22.4% |
| 75-84 | 231 | 19.1% |
| 65-74 | 23 | 16.0% |
A 6.4-point spread between the top and bottom bands is substantial at this scale. Critically acclaimed games do not just get bought more — the people who own them get further in. If you are choosing what to rescue from a backlog, review score is a defensible tiebreaker, not just snobbery.
Finding 3: the average game eventually loses 79% of its price
Across 893 games with verified price history, the average full price is $23.52 while the average all-time low is $5.01 — a 78.6% maximum discount. This is why "% off" is a weak signal on its own: a −40% badge on a game that has previously hit −85% is not a deal, it is a mid-point.
At the time of writing, 55 of those 893 games sat at or below their historical low simultaneously — roughly 6% of the sample on any given day. Patience is not free (you play later), but it is reliably rewarded.
What this means for a backlog
- Do not measure yourself against 100% completion. Under 3% of players reach it; a finished main story is the realistic definition of "done".
- Use score as a rescue signal. Higher-rated unplayed games are statistically more likely to hold you once started.
- Wait for the historical low, not the discount badge. The average game gets 79% off eventually.
Methodology
Achievement data comes from Steam's public GetGlobalAchievementPercentagesForApp endpoint, which reports the exact percentage of owners who unlocked each achievement; we aggregate per game (mean of all achievements, and the minimum as the full-completion proxy). Games without achievement schemas are excluded. Price data comes from the IsThereAnyDeal API covering multiple verified stores; "all-time low" is their historical minimum. The sample is GamersPilot's catalog — the most-owned games on Steam plus titles from synced user libraries — so it skews toward popular releases rather than the long tail of the store. Numbers were current on 23 July 2026 and are refreshed continuously; per-game figures are visible on each game page.
TL;DR
- 408 games analyzed: 72.5 achievements each on average, 20.2% average unlock rate.
- The average game is fully completed by 2.84% of owners; 85% of games are under 5%.
- Higher critic scores correlate with deeper play: 22.4% unlock rate at 85+ vs 16.0% at 65-74.
- Across 893 games, average price $23.52 vs $5.01 all-time low — a 78.6% eventual discount.