MondayDemos

№ 4 · last week · 26 October to 1 November 2026

Opened to 46 players. Drew 406 a week later.

Every demo that went live on Steam last week, read morning and evening from the day it dropped. Below: the demos that drew a crowd their following does not explain, the biggest crowds, which ones players came back to, what launched off a demo, and who got signed.

demos: 398; demos
playtests and betas: 32; playtests and betas
launches with a demo: 540; launches with a demo
signings: 0; signings

Top xCCU

Which demos drew more players than they should have? xCCU, our own metric, predicts a demo's crowd from what it starts with: its followers before the demo dropped, its place on Steam's wishlist chart, its publisher, its store page, and how many other demos dropped the same day. Expected is the typical crowd for a demo with that start. Peak (d3) is the most people playing at once in its first three days; next is the second-highest of the six readings, so a one-off spike cannot rank. These demos beat their expectation by the most players.

Based on 6,892 demos since 17 August. Each demo is scored after three days, so this covers demos that dropped Saturday 24 October to Friday 30 October. 282 of them had no follower reading we could trust and are not scored.

CENTAVOSELF-PUBLISHED

City Builder · Economy · Colony Sim

Expected 4 · Peak 27 (d3) · next 14

1 in 9 for a demo with no community group · no reviews yet

no community group

SetPoint VolleyballSELF-PUBLISHED

Volleyball · Sports · Party Game

Expected under 1 · Peak 22 (d3) · next 18

1 in 39 for a demo with 10 to 49 followers · no reviews yet

12 followers on day 3 · Dormant page revived

Hole Punch CocktailSELF-PUBLISHED

Boomer Shooter · Female Protagonist · Surreal

Expected 22 · Peak 41 (d3) · next 26

1 in 6 for a demo with 200 to 999 followers · no reviews yet

737 followers on day 4

Paid Parking SimulatorSELF-PUBLISHED

Job Simulator · Management · Life Sim

Expected 3 · Peak 19 (d3) · next 10

1 in 34 for a demo with 10 to 49 followers · 6 reviews · no verdict yet (under 10)

21 followers on day 3

Stickiness

Did players come back? Opened is the most players a demo had in its first two days. Day 7 is how many were playing a week later. Kept compares the two; above 1× means the crowd grew. Demos that dropped 19 October to 25 October and opened to at least 10 players.

DEADLINE: Afterlife ProcessingSELF-PUBLISHED

Incremental · Dark · Psychological

Opened 46 · Day 7 406 · kept 8.8×

no reviews yet

别人家孩子都筑基了！SELF-PUBLISHED

Auto Battler · Roguelite · Xianxia

Opened 11 · Day 7 66 · kept 6.0×

no reviews yet

Happy Lane: The ThresholdSELF-PUBLISHED

Online Co-Op · Horror · Procedural Generation

Opened 10 · Day 7 49 · kept 4.9×

13 reviews · verdict 36

We March as OneSELF-PUBLISHED

Incremental · Auto Battler · War

Opened 74 · Day 7 327 · kept 4.4×

no reviews yet

MalignusSELF-PUBLISHED

Colony Sim · Villain Protagonist · Building

Opened 87 · Day 7 321 · kept 3.7×

96 reviews · verdict 70

Top CCU

The demos that drew the biggest crowds this week. CCU is the most people playing a demo at the same moment. We take two readings a day, so a small number can miss a few players. Only demos that dropped this week; Sunday's have one reading so far.

One More LawnSELF-PUBLISHED

Relaxing · Hobby Sim · Job Simulator

Peak 553 · 6 readings · dropped Mon · no community group

no reviews yet

ThalassomaniaSELF-PUBLISHED

Horror · Online Co-Op · Fishing

Peak 233 · 4 readings · dropped Wed · no community group

no reviews yet

DinolordsPUBLISHED

RTS · Hack and Slash · Dinosaurs

Peak 180 · 6 readings · dropped Mon · no community group

no reviews yet

Ghost Ship Publishing · wishlist rank 334

Water TDSELF-PUBLISHED

Tower Defense · Physics · Pixel Graphics

Peak 98 · 2 readings · dropped Sat · no community group

no reviews yet

SolbrandSELF-PUBLISHED

Story Rich · Choices Matter · Puzzle

Peak 74 · 4 readings · dropped Wed · no community group

30 reviews · verdict 66

Top reviews

The demos that got the most new reviews this week. Any demo we track counts, not only this week's drops. Verdict is a cautious 0 to 100 score of how positive the reviews are; 70 or more is what Steam calls Positive. Played verdict is the same score from reviewers who played for at least an hour. The language is the one most reviewers wrote in.

Abyssal LapidaryPUBLISHED

RPG · Lovecraftian · Mystery

+302 this week · 480 total · verdict 82

played verdict 86 · English 49% · peak 1,244 this week

Dumpster GangPUBLISHED

Physics · Funny · Online Co-Op

+120 this week · 337 total · verdict 95

played verdict 96 · English 47% · peak 701 this week

Ignite the DepthsPUBLISHED

Online Co-Op · Dungeon Crawler · Dark Fantasy

+108 this week · 450 total · verdict 92

played verdict 94 · English 59% · peak 275 this week

ReshineSELF-PUBLISHED

Cleaning · Retro · Relaxing

+103 this week · 411 total · verdict 96

played verdict 97 · English 45% · peak 172 this week

Meltdown CrewPUBLISHED

Party Game · Puzzle · Online Co-Op

+92 this week · 284 total · verdict 87

played verdict 92 · English 56% · peak 1,446 this week

Launched, with a demo behind them

Games with a demo that went on sale last week. Copies sold is an estimate based on the game's reviews. Peak players is the most people playing at once since launch. The arrow shows whether opinion held up: the demo's verdict before launch against the full game's verdict now.

Probably Stolen - Cyberpunk Shopkeeper SimPUBLISHED

Shop Keeper · Cyberpunk · Inventory Management

est. 545,700 copies sold · peak players 128,031

demo verdict 98 → launch verdict 97 Overwhelmingly Positive

Epic SevenSELF-PUBLISHED

Anime · JRPG · Turn-Based Tactics

est. 67,900 copies sold · peak players 6,145

demo verdict 59 → launch verdict 55 Mixed

Nomad DriveSELF-PUBLISHED

Driving · Realistic · Automobile Sim

est. 58,000 copies sold · peak players 4,738

demo verdict 70 → launch verdict 78 Very Positive

ShredDeadSELF-PUBLISHED

Incremental · Auto Battler · Idler

est. 38,500 copies sold · peak players 1,892

no demo verdict → launch verdict 69 Mostly Positive

Project ExhibitionistSELF-PUBLISHED

est. 25,600 copies sold · peak players 971

no demo verdict → launch verdict 67 Mostly Positive

Signed

Games we track that found a publisher last week. We check 1,652 of them every day. Seen is the first day the publisher was on the store page; unsigned on is the last day it was not. The publisher was added somewhere in between.

No signing on the demo roster this week.

Followers, rising

Unreleased games picking up followers faster than usual. Followers are the best early sign we have of sales. Each card shows new followers a day this week, the game's usual daily pace before that, and how many times faster this week was. The percentage is how fast the game is growing for its size.