How to Organize a Steam Wishlist That Got Too Big
You add every game that looks interesting, and one day your wishlist has 100, then 200 games. If you use Steam, this probably sounds familiar. This article covers what goes wrong with an oversized wishlist and a low-effort way to bring it back under control.
What goes wrong when a wishlist gets too big
You can't decide what to buy during a sale
When a big sale starts, discount badges show up all over your wishlist. Everything looks like a deal, so you scroll from top to bottom and end up buying nothing, or you buy a pile on impulse and never get around to playing them. The more games there are, the worse this gets.
The games you really wanted get buried
Left alone, a wishlist sits in the order you added things. The game you've wanted for years sinks to the bottom while something you added on a whim last week sits near the top.
Too many notifications, so you stop reading them
Steam tells you when wishlisted games go on sale or launch. With hundreds of games, notifications arrive almost every day, and soon you skim past the ones that matter.
Idea 1: don't compare everything
The main reason people give up on reordering is the feeling that every game needs an exact position. Comparing 200 games head to head means about 20,000 pairs. Nobody can do that by hand.
But for actual shopping, only the top of the list matters. In the next sale you'll buy a handful of games, maybe a dozen. Whether a game is #100 or #101 makes almost no difference. Be careful at the top and rough everywhere else. That's what makes organizing sustainable.
Idea 2: sort into tiers
Instead of exact positions, split games into a few groups. Decisions become much easier. Four tiers work well:
| Tier | Rough size | What to do in a sale |
|---|---|---|
| Want it now | About 10% | Buy at a decent discount |
| Buy on sale | About 20% | Buy when the price drops a lot |
| Maybe someday | The largest group | Skip for now |
| Probably skip | The rest | Candidates to remove |
It's normal for "Maybe someday" to be the biggest tier. You don't need to agonize over those games every sale. Narrowing your attention to the top two tiers changes how you shop.
Idea 3: decide what you don't want, too
Finding games you no longer want matters as much as picking favorites. Plenty of games seemed interesting when you added them but leave you cold now.
Asking "should I remove this?" one game at a time is tiring, though. Put a few games side by side and ask "which of these do I want least?" and the answer comes quickly. Having something to compare against makes your feelings clear.
Idea 4: review before big sales
Tastes change. Rather than ordering once and forgetting it, review before each big sale. Where do your new additions fit? Are your top games still the same? You don't have to start from scratch; slot in the new games and check the top.
Doing it with Steam Wishlist Ranker
Steam Wishlist Ranker is built around exactly these ideas.
- You tap the games that catch your eye first, so the top candidates are narrowed down early (no comparing everything).
- You pick the most and least wanted out of 4, so you learn what you want and what you don't at the same time.
- Results are split into four tiers: Want it now, Buy on sale, Maybe someday, and Probably skip.
- You can apply the order to your Steam wishlist and add the tiers as Steam categories.
- When you reload, your previous ranking stays and only new games are slotted in.
If your wishlist has gotten out of hand, give it a try.