Game Marketing tip:
TRANSLATE your press release in this languages :
simplified chinese ZH-CN, EN, ES,FR,JP,KO,RU,IT,PT-BR,DE ,TR, PL, TH, ID, UKR,CS,HU,NL,ES-LATAM
if you don't have any region blocked .
The “Real” Steam Priority Set
Here is the actual optimal order for a global indie game:
Mandatory (80% of global Steam impact)
These cover the biggest buying power discovery:
EN – English
ZH-CN – Simplified Chinese (huge, don’t skip)
RU – Russian
DE – German
PT-BR – Brazilian Portuguese
FR – French
These six alone already give you massive coverage.
Tier 2 , Very Strong ROI
These punch above their size:
ES-ES – Spanish (Spain LATAM spillover)
JA – Japanese
KO – Korean
IT – Italian (surprisingly good for horror & indie)
TR – Turkish (very active indie audience)
PL – Polish (huge PC gamer base)
TH – Thai
ID – Indonesian
UKR – Ukrainian
CS – Czech
HU – Hungarian
NL – Dutch
These are mostly community goodwill / long tail.
What You’re Actually Missing (High Value):
IT (Italian) → very good for horror games
TR (Turkish) → extremely active Steam audience
PL (Polish) → one of the strongest PC markets in Europe
PT-BR (proper code) → make sure it’s real Brazilian Portuguese
ES-LATAM variant (optional) → if your Spanish is Spain-only
The 12-Language “Perfect Indie Set”
If I had to recommend the sweet spot (best ROI vs cost):
EN
ZH-CN
RU
DE
PT-BR
FR
ES
IT
TR
PL
JA
KO
This is the gold standard for Steam discoverability
Localize not just text, but:
Capsule image text
First screenshot captions
First line of short description
SECOND TRAILER or multiple TRAILERS, with translated CAPTATIONS. Use one in english, and one in chinese on the steam store page !
Especially for:
Chinese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
That alone can increase CTR by 20–40% in those regions.
Common Mistake to Avoid
Swedish
Norwegian
Finnish
Danish
Those regions already play in English and give minimal ROI.
Example:
For horror specifically, top performing regions are:
China
Russia
Brazil
Germany
Poland
Italy
Japan
Add these next, in this order:
IT (Italian)
PL (Polish)
TR (Turkish)
Verify PT-BR is correct
Optional: ES-LATAM variant
If you do just those three (IT/PL/TR), you’ll cover ~95% of Steam’s meaningful non-English traffic.
That’s the point where localization stops being “nice to have” and becomes pure ROI.
#gamedevs