SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik (opens in new tab) recently unearthed evidence of a “year in review” feature similar to those offered by Spotify or Nintendo in the Steam API. Djundik provided a screenshot of the evidence, as well as a brief description of the feature, supposedly set to arrive with the end-of-year Winter Sale.
The screenshot provided by Djundik includes playtime across various platforms like Linux, Mac, Windows, and the Deck, as well as peripheral information like controller and VR playtime. The total playtime for a whole year seems like an especially sobering metric—I spend a lot of time on Steam, it’s gonna be like being reminded of how much of your life is spent sleeping or on the toilet.
Steam already keeps detailed logs of users’ playtime on the service—something we at PC Gamer have already developed an unhealthy obsession with (opens in new tab). Still, there’s something special about end of year wrap-ups that can put your consumption habits into perspective, perhaps to your horror.
It felt like an indictment from on high when Nintendo told me that my most-played Switch game of 2021 was Beamdog’s Baldur’s Gate port to the system. 125 hours of twin stick real time with pause tactical RPG action like some kind of sicko—what was I thinking? Similarly, listening to the great Doom (2016) or Furi soundtracks when you work out might make “Video Game Music” one of your top Spotify genres—not something I feel great sharing with my former high school classmates on Instagram.
All jokes aside, I find offerings like this to be a rare fun consequence of the constant digital surveillance we submit to on a daily basis. Instead of getting used as another advertising metric, this data can give us a fun and perhaps worthwhile look at how we engage with our digital media of choice. There’s gonna be some Destiny 2 players on the PC Gamer team looking at gnarly triple-digit numbers come December, though.