Hosted Games Data Sheet: For All You Number Nerds Out There

[hustlertwo]

This is the culmination of when I mentioned a couple months ago about coming up with a genre sheet in the excellent thread @Brian_Rushton created that detailed his observations the impact of mechanics on game popularity and success. Been working on this the last few weeks when I had a spare minute because that’s what you do when you work in Excel all day; you blow off steam by working on different Excel sheets. Now, I’m putting it out there for anyone who is interested. I’ll probably post some observances about it soon, but I imagine y’all can also draw some interesting conclusions from it.

HG Data Sheet

HG Story Title	Author	Genre	Subgenre (if applicable)	Word Count	# of Omnibus Ratings	Omnibus Rating	# of Steam Reviews	% of Positive Steam Reviews	# of Google Reviews	# of GPS Installs	GPS Score	Release Date	Price	Free?
Popcorn, Soda�Murder?	Pauzle	Mystery		23,000	65	4.1			1,229	100k+	3.6	3/4/2010	$1.99	Yup
The Nightmare Maze	Alex Livingston	Horror	Puzzle	5,200	29	4			1,069	50k+	3.5	6/17/2010	$0.99	Yup
What Happened Last Night?	Kie Brooks	Mystery	Humor	4,900	134	3.9			753	50k+	3.1	7/19/2010	$0.99	Yup
Paranoia	Kie Brooks	Puzzle		5,800	180	3.9			1,139	50k+	3.4	4/16/2011	$0.99	Yup
Imprisoned	Myth Thrazz	Fantasy	Puzzle	40,000	358	4.2			2,211	100k+	3.6	4/21/2011	$0.99	Yup
Land of Three Classes	Christopher Salomon	Puzzle	Fantasy	35,000	18	3.8			165	10k+	2.9	4/21/2011	$0.99	Yup
Marine Raider	Allen Gies	War	Historical	43,000	388	4.3			2,660	100K+	3.9	4/25/2011	$1.99	Yup
Dilemma	Mikhail Koroviev	Slice of Life	Modern	7,000	202	3.9			643	50k+	3.3	11/29/2011	$0.99	Yup
Zombie Exodus	Jim Dattilo	Supernatural	Post-apocalyptic	700,000	1,463	4.7	138	89%	7,191	100k+	4.3	12/4/2011	$1.99	Nope
Zebulon	Matt Slaybaugh	Sci-Fi		29,000	36	3.6			337	10k+	3.3	12/12/2011	$0.99	Yup
Mobile Armored Marine: Mission to Far Hope	Steve Cave	Sci-Fi	Mech	65,000	189	4.6			2,451	100k+	4.2	12/16/2011	$0.99	Yup
The Race	Andy Why	Slice of Life	Modern	72,000	101	4.1			399	10k+	3.8	12/22/2011	$1.99	Yup
Dead Already?	Kie Brooks	Mystery	Puzzle	7,400	70	3.6			551	50k+	3.1	12/22/2011	$0.99	Yup
Apex Patrol	Allen Gies	Sci-Fi		270,000	266	4.5			186	1k+	4	3/23/2012	$1.99	Yup
The Sons of the Cherry	Alex Livingston	Historical	Fantasy	15,000	138	3.8			275	10k+	2.5	4/28/2012	$0.99	Yup
Way Walkers: University	J. Leigh	Fantasy	School	190,000	859	4.7			746	10k+	4.4	8/31/2012	$3.99	Nope
Life of a Wizard	Mike Walter	Fantasy		140,000	753	4.7	50	88%	1,310	10k+	4.6	2/27/2013	$2.99	Nope
Sabres of Infinity	Paul Wang	War	Fantasy	200,000	952	4.8			924	10k+	4.8	6/21/2013	$2.99	Nope
Paradox Factor	Mike Walter	Sci-Fi		30,000	78	4.6			289	5k+	3.8	8/2/2013	$0.99	Nope
Way Walkers: University 2	J. Leigh	Fantasy	School	200,000	675	4.7			693	5k+	4.7	10/18/2013	$4.99	Nope
Burn(t)	Vivi Tran	Supernatural	Post-apocalyptic	71,000	378	3.4			561	10k+	2	12/20/2013	$1.99	Yup
UnNatural	Sam Kabell	Supernatural	Modern	290,000	421	4.7	14	64%	3,688	100k+	4.3	1/3/2014	$2.99	Nope
Tin Star	Allen Gies	Historical		1,400,000	847	4.9	263	96%	1,188	10k+	4.8	2/21/2014	$4.99	Nope
Trial of the Demon Hunter	Samuel Harrison Young	Fantasy		78,000	115	4.5	5	40%	237	1k+	3.8	4/3/2014	$1.99	Nope
Planetary Quarantine	Andrew J. Schaefer	Sci-Fi		90,000	20	4.2			131	1k+	3.7	5/16/2014	$1.99	Nope
Life of a Mobster	Mike Walter	Crime	Modern	150,000	763	4.7	26	92%	976	10k+	4.5	7/11/2014	$2.99	Nope
Fatehaven	Devon Connell	Fantasy		110,000	722	4.7			1,075	10k+	4.3	8/8/2014	$2.99	Nope
Path of Light	Ivailo Daskalov	Fantasy		100,000	14	4.4			N/A	N/A	N/A	8/15/2014	$0.99	Nope
Sword of the Elements	Dmitry Drugov	Fantasy		230,000	11	3.9			97	1k+	2.5	9/5/2014	$1.99	Nope
The Gangs of Old Camp	Amith Shaju	Crime	Modern	35,000	80	3.9			86	1k+	3	9/12/2014	$0.99	Nope
Divided We Fall	Alex Clifford	War	Historical	140,000	60	4.6			174	1k+	4.4	10/17/2014	$1.99	Nope
The Ascot	Duncan Bowsman	Puzzle	Humor	160,000	48	3.9			89	1k+	2.9	12/5/2014	$4.99	Yup
Somme Trench	Andrew J. Schaefer	War	Historical	230,000	183	4.5			298	5k+	4.4	12/29/2014	$2.99	Nope
Silent Gear	Lee Yuan	Sci-Fi	War	40,000	169	4.2			N/A	N/A	N/A	12/29/2014	$1.99	Yup
Lords of Aswisk - First of His Blood	Teo Kuusela	Fantasy		300,000	449	4.7			843	10k+	4.4	1/30/2015	$2.99	Nope
The Lost Heir: The Fall of Daria	Mike Walter	Fantasy		160,000	3,161	4.8	50	78%	936	10k+	4.5	2/20/2015	$2.99	Nope
Seven Bullets	Cloud Buchholz	Crime		290,000	205	4.4			85	1k+	3.5	2/20/2015	$1.99	Yup
Zombien	Leon Naylor	Supernatural	Sci-Fi	280,000	125	4.6			1,864	50k+	3.9	3/6/2015	$2.99	Nope
The Volunteer Firefighter	Stefanie Handshaw	Slice of Life	Modern	130,000	134	4.6			159	1k+	4.4	3/13/2015	$1.99	Nope
The Shadow Horror	Allen Gies	Horror	Mystery	540,000	37	4.5			35	500+	3.9	4/10/2015	$2.99	Nope
No Proper Thief	Russell J. Dorn	Crime	Modern	56,000	90	4.5			178	10k+	3.7	4/17/2015	$1.99	Nope
Double/Cross	Toni Owen-Blue	Mystery	Modern	97,000	125	4.1			492	10k+	3.7	7/3/2015	$1.99	Nope
Samurai of Hyuga	Devon Connell	Fantasy	Historical	140,000	2,344	4.8	41	82%	3,719	100k+	4.5	7/17/2015	$3.99	Nope
Dancing with Demons	Ivailo Daskalov	Supernatural		47,000	79	4			117	1k+	3.4	8/14/2015	$0.99	Nope
So, You’re Possessed!	Tony R. Smith and Beth Townsend	Supernatural	Humor	50,000	146	4.6			792	10k+	4.3	8/28/2015	$1.99	Nope
Founders Saga: The Culling	Steve Spalding	Sci-Fi		54,000	321	4.5			414	10k+	4	10/2/2015	$2.99	Yup
Attack of the Clockwork Army	Felicity Banks	Steampunk	War	66,000	19	4			155	10k+	3.4	11/6/2015	$1.99	Nope
A Study in Steampunk: Choice by Gaslight	Heather Albano	Steampunk	Mystery	280,000	356	4.8	151	96%	772	10k+	4.8	11/20/2015	$3.99	Nope
Captive of Fortune	Samuel Harrison Young	Fantasy		130,000	35	4.6	3	0%	47	1k+	3.7	11/20/2015	$1.99	Nope
Factions: Raids of the Divided	Waseeq Mohammad	Puzzle	Fantasy	22,000	71	3.2			80	5k+	2.4	11/27/2015	$2.99	Yup
Community College Hero	Eric Moser	Superhero	School	170,000	1,168	4.7	233	86%	2,574	100k+	4.2	12/4/2015	$3.99	Nope
Vampire House	Jesse Freeman	Supernatural	Horror	85,000	1,175	4.4			3,519	100k+	4.2	1/25/2016	$2.99	Yup
Lost Heir 2: Forging a Kingdom	Mike Walter	Fantasy		240,000	1,923	4.8	30	76%	485	10k+	4.6	1/28/2016	$2.99	Nope
Wizardy Level C	Jac Colvin	Fantasy		99,000	54	4.1			233	10k+	3.1	2/12/2016	$2.99	Nope
Magikiras	Gabriel Cha	Sci-Fi	Mech	1,100,000	204	4.2	9	44%	660	10k+	4	3/11/2016	$3.99	Nope
Scarlet Sails	Felicity Banks	Fantasy	Steampunk	80,000	132	4.5			184	10k+	3.6	3/11/2016	$2.99	Nope
Guns of Infinity	Paul Wang	War	Fantasy	440,000	683	4.9	76	94%	647	5k+	4.9	3/25/2016	$4.99	Nope
First Year Demons	Rebecca Slitt	Supernatural	School	76,000	48	4.4			36	1k+	3.1	4/8/2016	$1.99	Nope
Best of Us	Teo Kuusela	Superhero		120,000	186	4.1	13	23%	233	10k+	3.5	4/22/2016	$2.99	Nope
Gambling With Eternity	Ashlee Sierra	Supernatural	Horror	53,000	158	4			165	10k+	3.4	4/29/2016	$2.99	Yup
Doomsday on Demand	Norbert Mohos	Post-apocalyptic		120,000	417	4.6	7	43%	5,395	100k+	4.4	5/6/2016	$2.99	Nope
Starship Adventures	Various	Sci-Fi	Humor	94,000	31	4.5			77	10k+	3.6	5/6/2016	$2.99	Nope
The Iron Destinies	David Berner	Sci-Fi		460,000	46	3.8			96	5k+	2.9	6/10/2016	$3.99	Nope
Swamp Castle	Philip Kempton	Fantasy	Historical	100,000	1,175	4.4	1	0%	3,101	100k+	4.4	7/29/2016	$2.99	Yup
The 3Games	Ema Bicova and Anna Michalcova	Sci-Fi		200,000	25	4.2			131	10k+	3.9	7/29/2016	$2.99	Nope
Academy of Disaster	Maxine Janerka	School	Crime	68,000	14	4			82	10k+	3.6	7/29/2016	$2.99	Nope
Machinations: Fog of War	Chris Conley	Steampunk	Sci-Fi	170,000	12	3.5	9	33%	124	10k+	3.1	8/19/2016	$3.99	Nope
Samurai of Hyuga Book 2	Devon Connell	Fantasy	Historical	210,000	2,445	4.8	38	87%	843	10k+	4.7	9/16/2016	$5.99	Nope
Elemental Saga: The Awakening	Mandar Deshmukh	Supernatural	School	100,000	273	4.2			716	50k+	3.7	10/7/2016	$2.99	Yup
Tomb of the Khan	Todd Maternowski	Horror	Mystery	54,000	49	4.1			40	5k+	3.2	10/7/2016	$2.99	Yup
Twin Flames	Ivailo Daskalov	Fantasy		46,000	60	4.3			111	10k+	3.5	10/21/2016	$1.99	Yup
Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven	Jim Dattilo	Supernatural	Post-apocalyptic	1,100,000	5,187	4.8	129	89%	4,176	100k+	4.4	10/28/2016	$4.99	Nope
Tokyo Wizard	Adrao	Fantasy	Supernatural	160,000	542	4.6	2	100%	516	50k+	4.1	12/16/2016	$3.99	Nope
Evertree Inn	Thom Baylay	Fantasy	Mystery	270,000	3,563	4.8	28	75%	1,898	100k+	4.5	1/20/2017	$3.99	Nope
The Great Tournament	Philip Kempton	Fantasy	Historical	190,000	13,831	4.7	21	90%	32,649	500k+	4.7	3/3/2017	$4.99	Yup
Spacing Out	Ivailo Daskalov	Sci-Fi		51,000	36	4.3			174	10k+	3.6	3/3/2017	$0.99	Yup
The Lost Heir 3: Demon War	Mike Walter	Fantasy		290,000	1,122	4.8	29	55%	594	10k+	4.5	3/17/2017	$4.99	Nope
Paradigm City	James Rhoden	Superhero		110,000	366	4.3	5	60%	563	50k+	3.7	4/14/2017	$3.99	Nope
The Daily Blackmail	Mary Duffy	Mystery	Crime	34,000	143	3.8			80	5k+	2.9	4/14/2017	$3.99	Yup
Treasure of the Forbidden City	Danny McAleese and David Kristoph	Adventure	Modern	40,000	46	4.3			23	1k+	2.8	6/1/2017	$4.99	Yup
My Day off Work	Andrew J. Schaefer	Slice of Life	Humor	240,000	681	4.3			340	10k+	4.1	7/14/2017	$3.99	Yup
The Spy and the Labyrinth	Lewis Manalo	Horror	Mystery	45,000	13	3.7			35	1k+	2.6	7/27/2017	$2.99	Yup
Diamant Rose	Teo Kuusela	Spy	Mystery	89,000	15	4.5			68	10k+	4.1	8/10/2017	$2.99	Nope
The Dryad’s Riddle	Avery Moore	Puzzle	Fantasy	71,000	8	4.6			33	1k+	4.1	8/18/2017	$2.99	Nope
Knight of the Fellowship	Ivailo Daskalov	Fantasy	Historical	52,000	40	4.5			181	10k+	3.4	8/18/2017	$1.99	Nope
Lost in the Pages	Various	Supernatural	Puzzle	130,000	35	4.7			115	10k+	3.9	9/14/2017	$2.99	Nope
Highlands, Deep Waters	Fernando Neves and Lucas Zaper	Horror	Mystery	350,000	109	4.7	20	80%	458	10k+	4.4	9/28/2017	$3.99	Nope
Samurai of Hyuga Book 3	Devon Connell	Fantasy	Historical	230,000	1,849	4.8	25	76%	570	10k+	4.7	12/1/2017	$5.99	Nope
Foundation of Nightmares	Samuel Harrison Young	Fantasy		96,000	41	4.6	0	N/A	72	10k+	3.6	12/19/2017	$1.99	Nope

Continued below, hopefully…?

[hustlertwo]

Thanks to @cup_half_empty for the markdown table suggestion, since Excel doesn’t upload here.

HG Data Sheet Part Deux

HG Story Title	Author	Genre	Subgenre (if applicable)	Word Count	# of Omnibus Ratings	Omnibus Rating	# of Steam Reviews	% of Positive Steam Reviews	# of Google Reviews	# of GPS Installs	GPS Score	Release Date	Price	Free?
The Aether: Life as a God	A. Reddwolf	Supernatural	Fantasy	64,000	1,571	4.6	28	82%	3,547	100k+	3.9	1/11/2018	$2.99	Nope
Comrade or Czar	Albnoob	War	Historical	61,000	127	4.1			113	1k+	2.1	2/1/2018	$3.99	Nope
The Great Tournament 2	Philip Kempton	Fantasy	Historical	370,000	866	4.6	13	62%	2,292	50k+	4.1	2/9/2018	$2.99	Nope
Wayhaven Chronicles: Book One	Mishka Jenkins	Supernatural	Romance	440,000	11,807	4.8	238	95%	5,909	100k+	4.7	3/8/2018	$4.99	Nope
Fallen Hero: Rebirth	Malin Ryden	Superhero		390,000	2,389	4.8	221	98%	3,198	50k+	4.6	3/15/2018	$3.99	Nope
Highway Wars	Adrao	Post-apocalyptic		200,000	355	4.5	15	67%	243	10k+	4.1	3/15/2018	$3.99	Nope
NE by NW Oz	Ron Baxley Jr.	Humor		32,000	6	3.3			32	1k+	2.5	4/30/2018	$1.99	Nope
The Kepler Colony: Evacuation	Andy Why	Sci-Fi		170,000	182	4.7			227	10k+	4	5/10/2018	$2.99	Nope
Community College Hero: Knowledge is Power	Eric Moser	Superhero	School	200,000	709	4.8	24	92%	820	10k+	4.5	5/17/2018	$4.99	Nope
A Mummy is Not an Antique	Randy Condon	Humor	Supernatural	54,000	3	3.8			15	1k+	3	6/1/2018	$2.99	Nope
The Courting of Miss Bennet	Michael Gray	Romance	Historical	200,000	84	4.4			189	5k+	3.8	6/7/2018	$2.99	Nope
Doomsday on Demand 2	Norbert Mohos	Post-apocalyptic		140,000	122	4.5	5	40%	428	10k+	4	6/26/2018	$2.99	Nope
The Harbinger’s Head	Kim Berkley	Horror	Supernatural	48,000	93	4.6	12	100%	106	10k+	4.3	7/18/2018	$2.99	Nope
The Last Wizard	Mike Walter	Fantasy		190,000	497	4.7	18	89%	561	10k+	4.2	8/2/2018	$4.99	Nope
The Magician’s Burden	Samuel Harrison Young	Fantasy		230,000	558	4.7	12	42%	281	10k+	3.9	8/16/2018	$4.99	Nope
The Haze Under Windbrooke	Jesse Freeman	Fantasy	Supernatural	120,000	57	3.4			78	1k+	2.7	8/16/2018	$2.99	Nope
The Grim and I	Thom Baylay	Supernatural	Horror	160,000	902	4.8	9	89%	1,032	50k+	4.4	9/27/2018	$3.99	Nope
The Twelve Trials	Douglas DiCicco	Fantasy		160,000	270	4.5	8	50%	138	10k+	4.1	9/27/2018	$2.99	Nope
Nuclear Powered Toaster	Matt Simpson	Sci-Fi	Humor	160,000	53	4.5	0	N/A	66	1k+	4.1	10/25/2018	$2.99	Nope
Love at Elevation	Steve Wingate	Romance	Slice of life	320,000	806	4.3	15	40%	302	10k+	3.5	11/5/2018	$5.99	Nope
Missing Wings	Carlos Romero	Puzzle	Fantasy	140,000	17	3.7			53	1k+	2.6	11/12/2018	$3.99	Nope
The Slayer of Evil	Ivailo Daskalov	Fantasy		57,000	23	4.2			38	1k+	2.6	11/12/2018	$1.99	Nope
The Butler Did It	Daniel J. Elliot	Steampunk	Puzzle	300,000	125	4.6			96	5k+	4.4	11/22/2018	$4.99	Nope
Critical Mass: The Bridge	Michael Meillarec	Post-apocalyptic		160,000	140	4.2			46	5k+	3.5	11/22/2018	$2.99	Nope
Life of a Mercenary	Philip Kempton	Fantasy	Historical	340,000	13,260	4.6	6	100%	10,060	100k+	4.4	12/18/2018	$3.99	Yup
Gladiator: Road to the Colosseum	Foong Yi Zhuan	Historical		220,000	967	4.4	6	33%	535	10k+	3.8	1/17/2019	$3.99	Nope
Keeper of the Sun and Moon	Brynn Chernosky	Supernatural	School	320,000	3,359	4.7	16	88%	748	10k+	4.5	1/24/2019	$3.99	Nope
Dragon Racer	Tierra Wright	Fantasy		420,000	918	4.8	25	68%	975	10k+	4.3	1/31/2019	$3.99	Nope
Tudor Intrigue	James Young	Historical	Slice of life	180,000	543	4.5			207	10k+	4	2/22/2019	$2.99	Nope
The Paths to Greatness	Andrew Specter	Fantasy		180,000	216	3.8			153	10k+	2.7	2/22/2019	$3.99	Nope
Sordwin	Thom Baylay	Fantasy	Mystery	440,000	3,510	4.9	21	100%	848	10k+	4.8	3/7/2019	$4.99	Nope
Totem Force	Tom Rayner	Sci-Fi	School	260,000	537	4.7	7	86%	297	10k+	4.2	4/4/2019	$4.99	Nope
The Saga of Oedipus Rex	Jac Colvin	Fantasy	Historical	100,000	167	4.5			65	5k+	4.2	5/17/2019	$3.99	Nope
Scratch	Cloud Buchholz	Mystery		170,000	70	4.3			69	5k+	3.8	7/1/2019	$2.99	Nope
Who Was the Real Robin Hood?	Christy Waites	Fantasy	Historical	150,000	49	4.1			44	1k+	2.8	7/1/2019	$2.99	Nope
A Sensei’s Story	Dom Fella	Slice of Life		240,000	324	4.5			142	5k+	4.3	7/1/2019	$2.99	Nope
One Minute Mysteries	Michael Gray	Mystery	Puzzle	60,000	6	4.1			23	1k+	3.5	7/22/2019	$3.99	Nope
Samurai of Hyuga Book 4	Devon Connell	Fantasy	Historical	440,000	3,832	4.8	39	82%	889	10k+	4.7	8/29/2019	$7.99	Nope
Hero or Villain: Genesis	Adrao	Superhero		330,000	8,984	4.6	25	68%	2,380	100k+	4.2	9/19/2019	$3.99	Nope
The Parenting Simulator	Matt Simpson	Slice of Life	Humor	190,000	2,995	4.7	28	93%	1,015	50k+	4.4	9/30/2019	$3.99	Nope
Death at the Rectory	Felicity Banks	Mystery		88,000	139	4.2			33	1k+	3	9/30/2019	$2.99	Nope
Moonrise	Natalie Cannon	Supernatural	Horror	50,000	250	4.2			99	1k+	2.7	10/17/2019	$1.99	Nope
War of the Gods	Barbara Elzey	Fantasy		260,000	4,699	4.5			924	10k+	3.1	10/17/2019	$2.99	Yup
The Oldest Dream	Onurhan Tunyadin	Fantasy		36,000	374	4.3			64	1k+	4.1	10/17/2019	$1.99	Yup
Breach: The Archangel Job	Michael Maxwell and S. Ben Luigi	Crime		820,000	4,972	4.9	53	94%	1,792	10k+	4.6	11/14/2019	$6.99	Nope
The War for the West	Lucas Zaper	Fantasy		490,000	4,740	4.8	43	81%	2,458	50k+	4.5	11/14/2019	$6.99	Nope
Street Jam: The Rise	Tevin Betts	Crime		370,000	897	4.3	7	14%	269	10k+	3.2	1/9/2020	$5.99	Nope
The Shadow Society	Cara Palmer	Fantasy	Supernatural	680,000	2,963	4.6	22	68%	731	10k+	4.4	2/6/2020	$6.99	Nope
Critical Mass: The Black Vein	Michael Meillarec	Post-apocalyptic		110,000	113	4.3			35	1k+	3.1	2/6/2020	$2.99	Nope
The Soul Stone War	Morgan Vane	Fantasy	Supernatural	480,000	3,856	4.7	56	71%	624	10k+	4.3	3/5/2020	$6.99	Nope
The Aegis Saga*	Charles Parkes	Fantasy	Supernatural	280,000	225	4.6	9	56%	89	1k+	3.4	4/2/2020	$5.99	Nope
Kidnapped Prom Queen	Michael Gray	Mystery	School	130,000	90	4.3			41	1k+	2.9	4/2/2020	$3.99	Nope
Wayhaven Chronicles: Book Two*	Mishka Jenkins	Supernatural	Romance	790,000	12,458	4.9	140	99%	2,319	10k+	4.9	5/7/2020	$6.99	Nope
AI-Aftermath	Ivailo Daskalov	Sci-Fi		38,000	104	3.9			38	1k+	3.2	5/21/2020	$2.99	Nope
Journey into Darkness	Jonathan Clark	Historical	Puzzle	110,000	10	3.6			N/A	1k+	N/A	5/21/2020	$3.99	Nope
War for Magincia	Philip Kempton	Fantasy	Historical	200,000	819	4.4	8	38%	288	10k+	3.5	6/4/2020	$4.99	Nope
Trees Don’t Tell	Taylor Zane	Mystery	Horror	36,000	9	4.8			16	1k+	3.9	7/2/2020	$2.99	Nope
President Disaster	Marc Faletti and Maeve Adams	Humor	Politics	36,000	322	4.1			108	1k+	2.5	7/2/2020	$4.99	Yup
The Floating City	Felicity Banks	Post-apocalyptic	Sci-Fi	140,000	25	4.4	4	75%	44	1k+	3.6	8/6/2020	$3.99	Nope
Macabre Mansion	Billy Towers	Mystery	Horror	43,000	122	3.6			18	500+	3.8	8/6/2020	$2.99	Yup
A Sorcerer’s Story	Chris Viola	Supernatural	Fantasy	55,000	126	3.8			48	1k+	2.6	9/2/2020	$2.99	Nope
Balance of Superpower	Rustem Khafizov	Superhero	Sci-Fi	67,000	422	4.3			70	1k+	3	9/2/2020	$2.99	Nope
Hero or Villain: Battle Royale*	Adrao	Superhero		250,000	1,955	4.6	7	57%	387	10k+	4.3	9/16/2020	$4.99	Nope
Demon: Recollect	B’athala	Superhero	Fantasy	180,000	2,316	4.7			451	10k+	4.4	10/1/2020	$4.99	Nope
Too Different	Andrew Specter	Romance	Mystery	220,000	636	4.1	3	33%	65	1k+	3.6	10/9/2020	$2.99	Nope
Score of a Lifetime	John Lance	Romance	Crime	43,000	230	4			31	1k+	3	11/5/2020	$2.99	Nope
After the Storm	Luiza Alves	Romance	Fantasy	190,000	1,196	4.6			168	5k+	4.2	12/3/2020	$4.99	Nope
The Brothers’ War	Fionn Graham	Historical	Fantasy	62,000	339	4			71	1k+	3.3	1/7/2021	$2.99	Nope
Relics of the Lost Age	James Shaw	Historical	Fantasy	400,000	603	4.8	9	78%	141	1k+	4.4	1/7/2021	$5.99	Nope
Keeper of the Day and Night	Brynn Chernosky	Supernatural	School	390,000	2,499	4.8	16	100%	265	5k+	4.7	4/1/2021	$5.99	Nope
The Mage’s Adventures	Samuel Harrison Young	Fantasy	Supernatural	120,000	524	4.4			57	1k+	4	4/15/2021	$3.99	Nope
War of 2022	YHGS	War		120,000	598	4			92	1k+	4.1	4/15/2021	$3.99	Nope

[Chris_Conley]

Mmm, yes. Delicious number.

[cup_half_empty]

This is awesome. Thank you!

[Rustem_Khafizov]

Great work!

So here are some of my observations (correct me if my math is wrong):

Out of 164 HG games, 94 of them don’t have a Steam release, which is a shame, since a lot of people (me included) discovered CoGs and HGs through Steam.

Fantasy seems to be the most popular genre/subgenre with 60 games being classified as fantasy (I included Lux, which isn’t represented on the sheet).

Mech, Spy, Adventure, and Politics appear to be the rarest genres with only one game for each of them.

The average word count for an HG game seems to be roughly around 140,000 words, with 80 games below and 84 games above that number (including the six games that are listed as having 140,000 words exactly).

[CC_Hill]

@Rustem_Khafizov

Out of 164 HG games, 100 of them don’t have a Steam release, which is a shame, since a lot of people (me included) discovered CoGs and HGs through Steam.

I wonder about that too. A lot of people I know buys from Steam. A steam release would be neat

[hustlertwo]

Thanks, y’all! Glad everyone likes it.

And yes, I had a post about some of this but the forum ate it, so in short fantasy is by far the most popular genre. 46 of the 161 games included in this list are considered primarily fantasy titles, and including 13 with it as their subgenre it’s a whopping 37% of all releases, probably double any other genre. I didn’t include Lux or the two new releases because I didn’t want their early numbers to be put against releases that have been out for months or years. Everything before the last three titles has been out for a good 45 days or more, which is enough time to get an accurate idea of about how they’re performing.

For Steam releases, an interesting thing: even though more titles don’t get one than do (and keep in mind the reason why is that Steam releases get copyediting, which costs a fair amount, and sadly many HG releases will take a long time to earn back even that modest sum, plus the Steam folks don’t always like the same stuff as the other marketplaces), 24 of the 26 releases with a word count over 300,000 got Steam releases (and the company chose well, because the two that didn’t were also the least successful in the other marketplaces, Iron Destinies and Shadow Horror. Both of which are very niche, and in the case of ID also fairly low-reviewed). So if you want to give yourself a good chance at hitting the third-best marketplace, beef up those word counts. Word counts even help pave over ills regarding relatively weak scoring, like with Love at Elevation, Street Jam or Magikiras. All of them have lower than average scores in marketplaces yet still show a reasonable level of success.

[malinryden]

So many interesting stats! Also, 98% positive on steam with 221 reviews. Nice! I’m so out of the loop about actual stats these days.

[Rustem_Khafizov]

@hustlertwo

24 of the 26 releases with a word count over 300,000 got Steam releases

@hustlertwo

So if you want to give yourself a good chance at hitting the third-best marketplace, beef up those word counts.

Yeaaah… that ain’t happening in my case, with my current WIP I’m aiming at 200,000 (which is difficult enough as it is), so 300,000 is definitely out of the question, but I’m not sure it’s a requirement for release.
For instance, the CCH games are immensely popular (and are my favorite HGs) and are below 300,000 words. Both have Steam releases (that’s how I found them).

[hustlertwo]

I’m not saying it’s a requirement; my own games both got Steam releases at word counts below 200k. Just that 92% of releases over 300k words got Steam releases, whereas I believe only 29% of releases at 300k words or less have been released on Steam.

[ViIsBae]

This is all super interesting, thanks so much for putting it together! I now don’t feel that self-conscious about my word count being over 100k at the beginning of chapter two. I was starting to feel like maybe I was going too much with it.

[rinari]

Thank you so much for putting this extensive list together, @hustlertwo , I can’t imagine how much time it took! Another really interesting thing to me is seeing how much Omnibus scores are always higher than GPS reviews for the same game. I wonder if this is because the Omnibus largely eliminates troll reviews/review bombing, or something like that?

[hustlertwo]

That is part of it; I know Parenting was as low as 3.5 soon after release from troll reviews. But another part is people who are not trolls but are also unfamiliar with HG. A lot, lot, lot of people give 1 star simply because it isn’t free with ads. Others don’t really grasp what ChoiceScript is and what it isn’t (one of my two negative reviews on Steam for Parenting is basically complaining at how much reading is involved). These are not bad faith reviews, but they are the sort of low-effort reviews that get weeded out by having to play the game first.

[rinari]

Yes, I see what you mean. Most of the people who download the Omnibus are either already aware of how HG and ChoiceScript works, or quickly learn; a lot of GPS users probably stumble across the separate apps and believe them to be standalone without making the connection to the greater culture and network of HG games. I see a lot of one-star reviews on GPS for games not being in a certain language, too! But you wouldn’t run into that problem with the Omnibus… I forget, can you also read reviews on the Omnibus, or are they only star ratings?

[hustlertwo]

Only star ratings on the omnibus. This is both terrific (even if a diehard troll goes all the way through, all they get is a number score, lost amidst dozens, hundreds or thousands of others) and terrible (some of the text reviews we get are simply amazing, both irreplaceable as advertisement for the game and downright rejuvenating of the spirit). I’m ultimately glad we have both text and number only reviews available.

[Lan]

Super interesting! Is this every HG? And do the little asterisks next to some of the titles mean something? How did you determine the genres?

Do you think you’ll do the COGs too?

---

I’d hazard a lot of the rating difference is also caused by the fact that you can rate on the
GPS as soon as you download the app, while you can only rate in the omnibus after buying it and playing to the end of the game.

That’s naturally going to select for people who enjoyed the game more than average.

[autumnchen]

Okay, so, I am obsessed with this and just spent a few hours doing a quantitative analysis of the data in python. Check out my analysis at Analysis, or the github repo. For measuring “popularity”, I just used Google ratings + omnibus ratings…

This includes a regression analysis to predict popularity by word count and genre; see the results at the end of the first link.

It turns out that The Great Tournament is a massive outlier in terms of popularity; it has a ton more Google plays and ratings than any other game. So if you see an outlier in the graphs below, it’s probably that.

Here are some basic graphs and summaries:

Games by year

Games by genre

Mean popularity by genre

Boxplot of popularity by genre

Popularity by word count

Summary of regression results

Interpreting the regression coefficients literally:

• Every additional word gets a game between 0.005 and 0.009 additional ratings.
• If a game is free, it’ll gain between 521 and 2868 ratings.
• If a game is in the fantasy genre, it’ll gain between 213 and 2217 ratings.
• If a game is in the supernatural genre, it’ll gain between 971 and 3594 ratings.
• If a game is in the Superhero genre, it’ll gain between 513 and 4134 ratings.

These are all the “significant” conclusions here. According to the regression coefficients, puzzle, adventure, sci-fi, horror, historical, and steampunk all have penalties, while war, school, and post-apocalyptic all have slight bonuses. But none of those are “significant”, because the sample size is very, very small.

Games that are more or less popular than expected

The games that are more popular than expected are, in order (not including The Great Tournament which would be 1st): Life of a Mercenary, Wayhaven 1, Wayhaven 2, Hero or Villain, Doomsday on Demand, Samurai of Hyuga, The Parenting Similator, War for the West, The Aether, and Evertree Inn.

The games that are less popular than expected are, in order: Tin Star (mostly because of the huge word count), Magikiras (also bc of the word count), Gambling with Eternity, Elemental Saga, Burn(t), Seven Bullets, Twin Flames, Lost in the Pages, The Aegis Saga, and Best of Us.

[ViIsBae]

Very interesting analysis of the data! I’m relatively new to the choice games forum and choice games in general (only been here a couple of months) but I’m guessing the massive popularity of Wayhaven Chronicles is adding a decent chunk to the Supernatural category, whereas the fantasy category may have a lot of really well received games, but the over-saturation of the genre may be what’s lowering it a bit in the popularity category (I’m not using over-saturation in a negative sense here; you can do a lot with fantasy and more power to writers for writing what they want!). I’m wondering, as I’ve said I’m a bit new, are there any other Supernatural Genred games that have blown up in popularity?

All in all, super interesting stuff; I love me a good graph!

[Negg]

Thanks for sharing this info with us, that right there is dedication, i hope you aren’t sleep deprive for that. .laugh:

I definitely agree with the top ones, even if personally didn’t grew one me, but I admit they are high quality books, but in press me when spike from nowhere, specially when a lot of these was just a small taste of it, and I was like ‘whoah what happened here?!’, I think the authors said the same, but I’m happy for they success of both accomplish they goal and the high acceptance and popularity of their works both COG and HG (I know this is HG stadistics, but I have to get credit to Cog crew too. )

And a small note too, if we considered all the projects who unfortunately did;nThanks for sharing this info with us, that right there is dedication, i hope you aren’t sleep deprive for that. .laugh:

I definitely agree with the top ones, even if personally didn’t grew one me, but I admit they are high quality books, but in press me when spike from nowhere, specially when a lot of these was just a small taste of it, and I was like ‘whoah what happened here?!’, I think the authors said the same, but I’m happy for they success of both accomplish they goal and the high acceptance and popularity of their works both COG and HG (I know this is HG stadistics, but I have to get credit to Cog crew too. )

And a small note too, if we considered all the projects who unfortunately didn’t go forward and most of 'em show being very promising in their own ways and what you expect for the genres i’m gonna mention right now, and genres such a sci-fi, steampunk, horror, mystery, school, slice of life, war, adventure would have far more representation, but up 5 to 10+ projects, but unsurprisingly, the supernatural and fantasy would steal the show, and with more of 30 to 50+…heck, and is an estimation of what I saw in here and dashingdon over the years, so please take it as a small pitch of salt.

[cup_half_empty]

This is amazing. I have to get my data science in order.

How did you calculate popularity? Considering there’s a lot more Fantasy games, it wouldn’t be surprising that Fantasy had a lot more downloads and reviews. What would be the average popularity for each genre?