Legendsmith

Hello, Video game and Toy advertiser here, you would need to spend up to half a million dollars to reach the 33 million concurrent high interest users you get access to on steam, a fee you only pay if you actually get that user. And that's to hit them once, and it generally takes 3-4 times to get people to purchase things because we are busy, distracted and get paid a couple times a month on specific days. You are entering a walled garden where everyone is there to play and buy games. I understand it sucks and you feel like you're taxed, but amount of money you'll spend hitting people that don't even like games (and actively complain about them) due to the way advertising algos often work would definitely cost 99% of game developers more than that steam tax. If you are able to spend less than half a million dollars and get enough people to download yet another vibe coded steam platform by all means, but it's unlikely. And yes, people who are on steam do still paid advertising, but if you weren't automatically niching down and getting interested parties that are boosting your credibility on steam, you'd probably spend 1.5m dollars.