Steam screenshots: what the best pages do

Steam shows four to five screenshots before the arrow, and many shoppers decide there. We measured the screenshots of 574 Steam pages, in store order, to see what the best pages put first.

Data from 574 Steam pages in the StoreCheck index · updated every few hours

23%Pages with a near-black shot in their first five

11%Pages whose first screenshot is dark

12Average number of screenshots

98 vs 54/255First-five brightness, best quarter vs worst

First five screenshots' brightness vs overall page score

Average brightness of the first five screenshots, the ones Steam shows before the arrow. Bars show the average overall page score in each group.

Very dark (under 30)

65 · 24 pages

Dark (30–45)

73 · 46 pages

Medium (45–70)

78 · 139 pages

Bright (70–100)

80 · 214 pages

Very bright (100+)

80 · 151 pages

A correlation across real pages, not proof of cause: better-made pages tend to get many things right at once.

How to do it

1. Lead with gameplay
The first screenshot is the most-seen image after the capsule. Use your best moment of play, not a menu, logo or cutscene.
2. Make the first five tell the loop
Shoppers who never click the arrow should still understand what they do in the game, minute to minute.
3. Check them at thumbnail size
Dark scenes and black letterboxing turn into dark rectangles in the strip. Brighten or crop for the store, even if the game itself is dark.
4. Keep the UI readable
Upload at 1920 × 1080 (16:9) so the full-size view stays sharp.
5. Upload enough
Pages with only a handful of screenshots give shoppers little to go on; most strong pages have ten or more.