Once Human, NetEase's upcoming third-person shooter, boasts over 15 million global pre-registrations, a testament to its success at Steam Next Fest. However, a closer look reveals a significant difference between its mobile and PC performance.
While the 15 million pre-registrations are impressive, only 300,000 represent Steam wishlists. This highlights NetEase's PC-first approach, a departure from their mobile-centric history. Despite this, Once Human remains highly popular on Steam, attracting a large player base during Next Fest.
This disparity underscores the challenges of achieving comparable reach and discoverability on PC compared to mobile platforms, even for established developers like NetEase. Their focus on PC isn't inherently negative, but it does illustrate the contrasting market dynamics.
