This statistic is misleading. They have no way of knowing what people paid for those games. The “value” isn’t just the Steam price.
As many people have mentioned here, most games in big Steam libraries come from bundles. It’s pretty typical to get games for, like, $1-2 each in those. I regularly get 8 games for $10, of which I only really want 1. I play the one I cared about and get my $10 worth. There’s no “lost value” so long as I got my money’s worth from the title I played.
I take an even bigger view: if I buy 10 bundles for $10 each, and get 1 absolute banger (for my preferences) and a few others that are fun for a bit, then I’m happy. I often add 20 new games to my library in a month, and only immediately play 1. That doesn’t mean I have “$400 value of games I’ve never played.”
That doesn’t mean I have “$400 value of games I’ve never played.”
I’d argue that what you pay for a game and the market value are two different things. The statistic is definitely misleading. The headline should read:
Steam users purchased games they haven’t played valued at $19b.
I’d say it’s pretty rare for people to pay full value for loads of games, i.e. I agree most unplayed games came in bundles, or were gifted/purchased at massive discount.
