Your demo is free marketing, do not spend it without wishlists

Never release your demo before you have collected wishlists. Your demo is your biggest free marketing tool. Especially on niche games that do not work on social media and have a hard time collecting wishlists.

Your target before the demo should be at least 5000+ wishlists, because once the demo is out you can send your wishlisters an email notification saying “the demo is out” within 14 days. On top of that, send 500+ emails to content creators, because getting into “Trending Free”, holding a healthy CCU on the demo and being seen on the front page is your biggest and, at this stage, maybe your only chance. Zukowski’s latest number for getting in there was 100+ CCU inside the 30 day release window.

When you do release the demo, do not put it out right before Steam Next Fest, put it out at least 1-2 months before SNF. Demos mature on player feedback and you need to go into SNF with the demo at its best. Do not use SNF as your main marketing tool either, it works more like a multiplier now. It used to be possible to go in with 100 WL and collect 4-5k, now if you go in with 100 WL you get 1k at most. The demo notification emails also drown among the other games.

If you want to get the game in front of players before the demo, use an alpha or beta. Beta tester Discords in particular are very active and the WL and feedback you get back are good.