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Think you’ve got a big Steam collection? This guy just hit level 1,000

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It’s been 12 years since the launch of digital distribution platform Steam, yet many of us have no more than 100 games in our accounts. And even so, a good number of those are still on our “to-play” list. But there are some users who go way beyond the norm, like PalmDesert, who has managed to bring his Steam account level to over 1,000 using his library of over 5,000 games.

To give you some context for how great this feat is, there are only 7,481 games on Steam in total. PalmDesert has more than two thirds of them, as well as more than 3,300 pieces of DLC. This equates to tens of thousands of dollars spent so far, even if he did take full advantage of every Steam sale that came along.

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But of course, just owning games doesn’t get you to level 1,058 (the number at the time of this writing) on your Steam account. For that you need achievements, trading cards, crafted badges and more, which means you actually have to play all of those games. PalmDesert has collected 3,073 badges in total and owns more than 61,000 virtual items.

While he may own thousands of games, even PalmDesert’s gaming-packed schedule can only fit so much, so a majority of his games have only been played for a few hours each — most for less than four. There are also several thousand games he’s never even installed.

He does, however, have a few favorites that he has spent a lot of time with over the past few years. Rift saw him put in 169 hours, whereas he’s sunk more than 300 slaying undead in Killing Floor. Ultra Street Fighter IV was also among his top three, with more than 520 hours on record.

The two big games/series that he loves the most though? Left 4 Dead and Rocksmith. Between Left 4 dead and its sequel, PalmDesert has racked up almost 1,400 hours of play time. He must be pretty good at the guitar at this point too, because he’s also spent just shy of 900 hours playing Rocksmith and Rocksmith 2014.

We’re all guilty for having a few games we’ve purchased and never played. Our average round the office is around 30 out of 150 in total. What about you guys?

Jon Martindale
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