Updated

Updated · WMUR Manchester · Aug 1

Michael Major's $200 Steam Game Tops $1.3 Million, but Mass Returns Cut Payout to $2,000

Updated

Updated · WMUR Manchester · Aug 1

Michael Major's $200 Steam Game Tops $1.3 Million, but Mass Returns Cut Payout to $2,000

Q: What secret overseas scheme turned thousands of fake sales of a prank game into a digital storefront mystery?

There is no confirmed “secret scheme.” The strongest evidence points to mass refund abuse tied to Steam’s ecosystem, most likely Steam Points farming or other storefront manipulation, not genuine sales. Michael Major’s $200 joke game showed about 6,717 purchases and roughly $1.38 million in gross sales, but 6,707 copies were refunded, leaving him with about $2,000 after Steam’s cut. Most of those purchases appeared to come from China, and many buyers never launched the game before refunding it. That pattern strongly suggests the transactions were never normal consumer purchases. Major’s own leading theory is that buyers may have used the game’s unusually high price to generate the maximum possible Steam Points, then quickly refunded it. Because Steam also uses regional pricing, China’s lower-price market may have made the transaction more attractive for point-farming, arbitrage, or other account-level abuse. Background reporting also notes that region switching and price differentials can create incentives for manipulation, even though such conduct violates Steam’s rules. A darker possibility raised by Major was money laundering through expensive Steam titles, but there is no evidence in the reporting that this is what happened here. Valve had not publicly explained the activity. So the mystery appears to be a burst of fake demand driven by refund-heavy platform abuse—probably points farming or regional storefront manipulation—rather than a real million-dollar hit.

1 articles · Updated · WMUR Manchester · Aug 1

$1.3 million in apparent sales flashed on 18-year-old Michael Major's Steam dashboard, but the New Hampshire teen said he will keep only about $2,000 after buyers returned most copies.
Thousands of purchases were concentrated in China, and Major said many users refunded the $200 game without ever opening it, an unusual pattern for a title he posted in January as a joke.
Major suspects the spike may have been driven by an overseas promotion or a scheme tied to Steam's refund system; he also said he has heard expensive games can be used for money laundering.
Valve, Steam's parent, has been asked to explain the activity around 'This Game is Worth $200,' the sequel to a $10 game and priced at Steam's $200 maximum.