Exploring Steam by category

Category filtering is designed to change the comparison set, not merely hide bubbles after the overall ranking has already been chosen.

Filter first, rank second

When you choose a category, Game Bubbles filters the active tracked catalogue to matching games first. That filtered set is then ranked by the relevant player snapshot, and up to 60 leading results become bubbles. This is important because it allows category leaders to appear even when they are outside the overall top 60.

The list can be much larger than 60

The 60-game limit applies to the visualisation, not to the ranked catalogue underneath. If hundreds of tracked games match a category, the list can show those matching entries while the bubble stage remains readable.

Games can belong to several categories

Categories are not mutually exclusive. A game can reasonably appear in more than one view, so category totals should not be added together as though each game belongs to exactly one bucket.

Coverage changes as the catalogue develops

Game Bubbles maintains a broader discovered and sampled catalogue but concentrates repeated tracking on an active subset. Category depth can therefore change as additional games are sampled and the active catalogue is refreshed. Less populous categories may have fewer tracked titles than broad categories such as Indie or Action.

Use categories for discovery

The overall view is useful for seeing the largest audiences on the site. Category views are better when you want to explore a particular kind of game and discover active titles that would otherwise be overshadowed by Steam's biggest releases.