How does a "Steam Year in Review" Streak works? (and other information to help me get a full 365?)

[VinTJ]

title. In every review there is a stat that says "Your Longest Streak was ___ days". I'm curious about how I never reached 250+ here since I feel like I am on steam basically daily.
I don't know what actually gets counted here. Is it just for:

1. Days where you login to steam (client / browser both? do I need to constantly re-login every 12 hours or so, or can I constantly be logged in?)

2. Days where steam detects you being active (you have to at least interact with it and not simply let it run in the background, gotta click around the client / community?)

3. Days where you boot up a steam game (so being simply online isn't enough, but logging in for Daily Don't Starve Together drops for 2 minutes every day does?)


Which one is it among these 3?


Additional questions, whatever is being counted, how does it refresh and decide to "track a new day"?
Do I need to do the same thing simply every ~23 hours since the last time, or is there a particular cut off point where it counts a new day?

Does it depend on local time, or UTC+10 or something?


I ask about cut-off points because this seems relevant in knowing what kind of wiggle room I'm dealing with. If we know the cut off point, then theoretically we can do one right the second it refreshes on the cut-off-point, and then let it sit for 47 hours and do it very late before the next cut-off point 2 days from that, and that would still count as "daily" in the streak.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

365 is impossible since it doesn't track the last 2 weeks of the year anyways.

[VinTJ]

alright that's pretty wild, but sounds about right. So the maximum is like, 350/351-ish?

still, I don't know why it says my longest is ~150 every time lol. never breaks 200 for 3 years and I would know any bit of info I can that might help me get to it.

[Barkaya]

Originally posted by VinTJ:

3. Days where you boot up a steam game (so being simply online isn't enough, but logging in for Daily Don't Starve Together drops for 2 minutes every day does?)

This.

Originally posted by VinTJ:

So the maximum is like, 350/351-ish?

My "Steam Replay 2023" shows: "Longest streak: 348 days from Jan 1 to Dec 15".

Originally posted by VinTJ:

Additional questions, whatever is being counted, how does it refresh and decide to "track a new day"?
Do I need to do the same thing simply every ~23 hours since the last time, or is there a particular cut off point where it counts a new day?

Does it depend on local time, or UTC+10 or something?

Would like to have a full info about it too. Currently I try to launch any game once in 4-5 hours before Daily Deals refresh (good reference point regardless of timezone) and once in 4-5 hours after. Seem to have worked in 2023 for me.

[ReBoot]

What about just playing games to enjoy them and using the statistic to look at how you enjoy games instead of altering your gaming behavior to make the statistic look a certain way?

[VinTJ]

Originally posted by Barkaya:

Originally posted by VinTJ:

3. Days where you boot up a steam game (so being simply online isn't enough, but logging in for Daily Don't Starve Together drops for 2 minutes every day does?)

This.

Originally posted by VinTJ:

So the maximum is like, 350/351-ish?

My "Steam Replay 2023" shows: "Longest streak: 348 days from Jan 1 to Dec 15".

Originally posted by VinTJ:

Additional questions, whatever is being counted, how does it refresh and decide to "track a new day"?
Do I need to do the same thing simply every ~23 hours since the last time, or is there a particular cut off point where it counts a new day?

Does it depend on local time, or UTC+10 or something?

Would like to have a full info about it too. Currently I try to launch any game once in 4-5 hours before Daily Deals refresh (good reference point regardless of timezone) and once in 4-5 hours after. Seem to have worked in 2023 for me.

nice to hear from someone with a huge streak!
I did assume that doing something like that (booting up often every 4 hours) is the safe way to do it. I thought I had to re-login often too on top of it.

still, knowing the minimum-effort required to still qualify for it would be nice!

[Barkaya]

Originally posted by VinTJ:

I did assume that doing something like that (booting up often every 4 hours) is the safe way to do it.

Nah, not "often every 4 hours" (that's a bit overkill), only "once within 4-5 hours before Daily Deals refresh and once within 4-5 hours after".

[metamec]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

365 is impossible since it doesn't track the last 2 weeks of the year anyways.

:nkCool:

I hate that. My most played game of 2024 isn't even in my top 5 because of it.

[FFL2and3rocks]

The FAQ at the bottom mentions GMT, so a "new day" of tracking likely starts at midnight in that time zone for the streak. That would explain why my 2023 streak broke, it shows the last day was August 20th even though I have screenshots timestamped at around 5pm on the 21st proving I played that day, which would actually be past midnight when converted to GMT.

[Elidas]

Does the longest streak take into account the player's local time zone, or is it calculated based on Steam's server time wherever it may be?
Btw, they should refresh the stats with the last 2 weeks, in holidays I can play a lot and the info is lost

[metamec]

Originally posted by Elidas:

Does the longest streak take into account the player's local time zone, or is it calculated based on Steam's server time wherever it may be?
Btw, they should refresh the stats with the last 2 weeks, in holidays I can play a lot and the info is lost

It tracks GMT surprisingly, according to the FAQ. Normally Valve time is Pacific Time. As for the missing data, I wouldn't mind if they included it in the following year's Replay. It seems crazy to omit so much from a feature like that, particularly from a period when people are off work and school and likely playing more.

[VinTJ]

Originally posted by FFL2and3rocks:

The FAQ at the bottom mentions GMT, so a "new day" of tracking likely starts at midnight in that time zone for the streak. That would explain why my 2023 streak broke, it shows the last day was August 20th even though I have screenshots timestamped at around 5pm on the 21st proving I played that day, which would actually be past midnight when converted to GMT. :avgn:

Alright. I'll choose to believe that. So it refreshes every GMT Midnight and I should boot up a game between these then. got it.

Let me know if there's anything else I should know I suppose!

[VinTJ]

Originally posted by Elidas:

It seems crazy to omit so much from a feature like that, particularly from a period when people are off work and school and likely playing more.

also this is real lol. Winter Sale is almost always when Steam hits an all-time peak of activity and a lot of prices even bugged for a moment in the most recent one. They should consider that period and tacking it to the next year's review as you said yeah.