Steam Next Fest June 2026 runs 15–22 June, which means if you're participating, you've got about three weeks to tie up loose ends. Over 2,000 games participate in each edition, and the competition for attention is real. The median game earned around 800 new wishlists in the February 2026 edition; the top performers got tens of thousands. The spread is steep, and most of the work that determines where you land has already happened. Still, there are a few things worth getting right before the doors open. (Stats source: ziva.sh)

One of them is leaderboards. Not because they'll make or break your Next Fest, but because a working leaderboard with a shareable public page is a small but genuine addition to your demo. Players have something to compete for. You have something worth posting.

The code

Use NEXTFEST26 at checkout for three months free on the LEADR Indie plan. Get started here.

First-time subscribers only, and you'll need to redeem it before 15 June.

Getting your LEADR integration ready

If you're already integrated, our go-live checklist covers everything worth verifying before your demo goes public. Worth running through even if you think it's all fine.

A few things that come up most often at this stage:

Test mode. Easy to leave on by accident. Scores submitted in test mode don't appear on your public leaderboard page. Check your LeadrSettings and make sure it's off.

Your public leaderboard URL. Find it in the LEADR app under your board's settings and make sure it actually loads. This is the link worth putting in your itch.io description, your Steam store page, and anywhere else you're directing players.

Your board type. If you're tracking speedrun times, make sure lowest-is-best ranking is enabled. If you want players to keep only their best score rather than logging every run, check your keep strategy is set accordingly. The board configuration docs have the full options.

A real test submission. Run the game, reach the score submission point, and confirm the entry appears in the app and on the public page. Not just "the SDK is installed" but an actual end-to-end check.

A few other last-minute things (not LEADR-specific)

Data consistently shows that 68–88% of wishlists come from people who never played the demo. Your store page capsule art and description are doing more work than the demo itself. If you haven't looked at those with fresh eyes recently, now's the time. (Stats source: Presskit)

Also worth doing: make sure your demo has a clear ending point. Players who don't know the demo is over will just quit. A "thanks for playing, wishlist now" screen isn't glamorous but it converts.

Good luck! There's a lot of noise in Next Fest and not much you can do about that now. Focus on the things you can control, get your integration solid, and use the code if LEADR is part of your stack.