A 2026 study by Tomohiro Murakami and Mitsuo Yoshida identifies four approaches publishers use to price Steam games across regions. It analyzes 7,375 pre-discount game prices from 268 publishers, using Valve’s regional recommendations as a benchmark. The categories describe observed publisher behavior; Steamworks’ conversion references are a separate set of tools.
Four observed approaches to Steam pricing
The study groups publishers as benchmark followers, calibrated adjusters, emerging-market premium seekers, and high-variance portfolio strategists. The labels distinguish publishers that follow Valve’s benchmark, adjust prices around it, seek a premium in emerging markets, or take a high-variation approach across a portfolio.
The study describes emerging-market premium seekers as pricing above platform guidance in Brazil and India while remaining closer to recommendations in advanced economies. It also finds that publishers affiliated with large game companies were more prevalent among high-variance portfolio strategists.
What the study measured—and when
The researchers compared pre-discount Steam game list prices with Valve’s regional price matrix. The journal abstract reports a sample of 7,375 titles from 268 publishers across eight currencies. The reported data collection took place in August–September 2023, across Brazil, China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.
Those figures describe a broad historical sample. They do not give the current price of a particular game.
What Steamworks recommends—and who sets prices
Steamworks offers three conversion references: one based only on exchange rates, one based only on purchasing power, and a multivariable approach. That last method considers local purchasing power, comparable entertainment prices, and exchange rates.
These are reference methods, not mandatory price settings. Developers choose the prices they set for regional currencies and groups, so a recommendation does not determine a game’s final store price.
What the Brazil and India averages mean
For the data collected in August–September 2023, the reported average Steam list price was about 128% of Valve’s recommendation in Brazil and 130% in India. In other words, the averages were about 28% and 30% above the benchmark, respectively. They describe the sampled prices in those markets, not every game or today’s listings.
For a specific purchase, check the game’s listing in your Steam store region. A sample-wide average cannot tell you what an individual title costs there.
