Most Steam Players Never Finish Story Games, New Study Finds

RageQuit.gg analyzed Steam achievements across 2,612 games, finding a 33.3% median story-completion rate among 100 popular story-driven titles.

SKOPJE, SKOPJE, NORTH MACEDONIA, October 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Most players never reach the ending of the story games they own, according to new research by gaming publication and data platform RageQuit.gg, based on Steam's global achievement statistics.

Across 100 popular story-driven games, the median title had been completed by just 33.3% of players, roughly one in three. Only 15% of the games examined had completion rates above 50%.

The findings are part of a broader analysis of 2,612 paid Steam games, examining achievement activity, release dates, genres, prices and player reviews.

Horror Games Are Finished More Often Than RPGs

Survival horror games recorded a median story-completion rate of 42%, compared with just 20% for RPGs.

Resident Evil titles performed particularly well. Resident Evil Requiem had a completion rate of 72.7%, followed by Resident Evil Village at 58.3% and Resident Evil 2 at 51.9%.

By comparison, only 21.8% of The Witcher 3 players had unlocked the relevant main-story ending achievement, while Cyberpunk 2077 stood at approximately 35%.

Call of Duty campaigns also exceeded the overall median. Modern Warfare 3 (2011) recorded a completion rate of 53.8%, while Modern Warfare 2 (2009) reached 48.5%.

The differences may partly reflect campaign length and game design, although the research does not establish a direct cause.

One in Five Players Have No Achievements in the Typical Game

Across 2,612 paid Steam games, the median estimated share of players without a single achievement was 20.1%.

Older games showed higher figures. Titles released in 2012 had a median zero-achievement share of 33.6%, compared with 22.7% for games released in 2020 and 8.6% for 2026 releases.

Souls-like games recorded a median zero-achievement share of 8.9%, compared with 37.7% for sports games.

However, zero achievements do not necessarily mean a player has never launched a game. Some titles require substantial progress before awarding their first achievement.

Highly Rated Games Are Not Necessarily Finished More Often

Games rated at least 95% positive by Steam users had a median story-completion rate of 37.4%, compared with 33% for games rated below 85%.

The research found a weak correlation of 0.13 between review scores and story-completion rates, suggesting that positive reviews alone are not strongly associated with players reaching the ending.

How the Research Was Conducted

RageQuit.gg analyzed publicly available Steam achievement statistics and store data.

The story-completion analysis covered 100 games with identifiable main-story ending achievements. The wider 2,612-game dataset examined paid games with at least 1,000 user reviews and five or more achievements.

Zero-achievement shares were estimated by subtracting each game's most commonly unlocked achievement percentage from 100%. The results represent game-level achievement statistics, not direct measurements of individual players' activity.

The complete study, including charts, methodology and downloadable datasets, is available at:

https://ragequit.gg/news/steam-players-finish-rates-study/

About RageQuit.gg

RageQuit.gg is an independent gaming publication and data platform offering live Steam player statistics for more than 26,000 games, alongside original gaming research, interactive maps, news and guides.

Website: https://ragequit.gg/

Petar Zajkovski
Ragequit.gg
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