Once Human: Steam Next Fest Success, But Wishlist Numbers Lag

Once Human has been a big hit on Steam's Next Fest
But the upcoming third-person shooter from NetEase also still lags behind mobile
With a PC-first release schedule, does this show how difficult discoverability is compared to mobile?

Once Human, the upcoming third-person shooter from NetEase, has surpassed 15m registrations worldwide - and the developer has been quick to point out the massive success the game saw at Steam Next Fest. However, there is a little wrinkle to that story.
While Once Human does in fact have over 15m pre-registrations, only 300,000 of those are wishlists on Steam. We did note before that NetEase, who have always been quite mobile-prominent, seem to be aiming for a PC-first release with Once Human, and have even given the desktop version of the game a much closer release date.
That's not to say we think NetEase is being Quixotic here. After all, Once Human is still massively popular on Steam, having drawn in the most demo players for Steam Next Fest. But it does show the dichotomy between mobile and PC, and how the former still outshines the latter.

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NetEase excels
We won't criticize NetEase for targeting a PC audience, nor do we view it negatively. But this news highlights the audience disparity, and perhaps the difficulty even a large developer faces achieving comparable popularity and discoverability on PC and mobile.

In any case, if you seek mobile games while awaiting Once Human's launch, explore our extensive list of the best mobile games of 2024 (so far) to find appealing titles.

Alternatively, browse our expanding list of the year's most anticipated mobile games to see upcoming releases. Both lists feature carefully selected games we believe are, or could become, the best on mobile.