What signals actually predict breakout review counts for indie games on Steam?

trajectory extrapolation from baseline review counts feels unreliable for a 2027 target. a game can sit flat for months then jump because a streamer picks it up, a genre moment arrives, or a patch changes the word-of-mouth dynamic entirely. curious whether people nominating here are weighting baseline velocity, genre positioning, or something harder to quantify like community cohesion around early access builds.