Game of the Week & Month Methodology

This page explains how we determine Game of the Week and Game of the Month. We capture daily snapshots of trending scores to track performance over time.

View Current Rankings: This Week's Top Games • This Month's Top Games • Daily Trending • Historical Calendar

How It Works

Every day at 12:00 AM UTC, we capture a snapshot of the top 50 games and record their trending scores and daily rank positions. Weekly and monthly rankings are calculated using the same multi-factor algorithm. The only difference is the time window (7 days vs about 30 days).

Multi-Factor Ranking Algorithm

Games are ranked using a weighted combination of five key factors:

  • Average Score (40%): Rewards consistency across multiple days. Calculated from daily trending scores throughout the period.
  • Peak Performance (20%): Rewards breakthrough moments. The highest trending score achieved during the period.
  • Positional Dominance (25%): Rewards high daily rankings. Games earn bonus points for ranking #1 (50pts), top 3 (30pts), top 5 (20pts), top 10 (12pts), or top 20 (6pts) each day. Normalized per day to be fair to late releases.
  • Consistency Bonus (10%): Rewards sustained trending with diminishing returns. More days in the top 50 = higher consistency score.
  • Recency Factor (5%): Slight boost for recent momentum. Games trending in the last 3 days get additional weight.

Special Bonuses: Top 3 Domination (+15 points for 3+ days in top 3), Champion Badge (+10 points for being #1 with 2+ days in top 3)

Data Sources

Rankings are based on trending scores calculated from Steam's official APIs:

  • Steam Web API: Player counts (updated every few hours)
  • Steam Store API: Rankings and pricing (updated daily)
  • Steam Reviews API: Sentiment data (multiple times daily)
  • Steam News Feeds: Game announcements (tracked continuously)

Tie-Breaking

Trending scores are calculated to 2 decimal places (e.g., 160.25), making ties extremely rare. If two games do achieve identical peak scores, the tie is broken by their current trending score. This ensures every game has a definitive rank position.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions or Feedback

See something that doesn't look right? Have suggestions for improving our weekly/monthly methodology? Reach out through our contact page.

For questions about how daily trending scores are calculated, see our main methodology page.