Important Tip #1: Don't make games for codexers.

[Halfling Rodeo]

anyway, most people who play video games as a hobby have huge backlogs, not least thanks to how companies like steam like to sell consumers more and more games they will never play

The people who TALK about video games have huge backlogs. Which is not the same thing. Magic the gathering lives off of kitchen table players far more than competitive players. It's a huge silent majority who never join forums, social media or talk about it in any public space. Fifa fags are the exact same, 10 million copies per year is huge numbers and how often do you see Fifa threads on gaming forums?