Which Languages Should You Localise Your Game Into First?

This guide is for indie and mid-sized studios deciding where to spend a first localisation budget. It explains what the public player data says, how platform rules affect the choice, and how to turn your own store analytics into a ranked list of languages.

There is no single correct list. A text-heavy role-playing game, a puzzle game with fifty interface strings and a mobile free-to-play title will each justify a different order. The aim is to pick the languages that bring in the most players per pound spent, then expand as revenue comes in.

Which languages do Steam players actually use?

Steam players are split across many languages, and English is used by only about a third of them. Valve's own localisation documentation states: "Over 60% of Steam users use it in a language other than English, so tailoring your experience for those users is important." (Steamworks: Localization and Languages).

The monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey records the language each surveyed user runs Steam in. In a recent snapshot, the largest groups were:

Read these figures with care. They measure the language of the Steam client, not the country or the spending power of the player, and they move from month to month. They also say nothing about consoles or mobile. Use them as a starting signal, then check them against your own data.

What does EFIGS mean, and is it still the right starting point?

EFIGS is industry shorthand for English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, the traditional first wave of game localisation for Western console and PC releases. It remains a sensible baseline for console games sold in Europe and the Americas, but on PC it leaves out some of the largest player groups.

Platform holders still use the term. Section 10.13.14 of the Microsoft Store Policies says that if a title is released in regions where these languages are supported, its metadata must be localised in EFIGS, Portuguese ("Brazilian Portuguese preferable"), Japanese and Simplified Chinese. That rule covers store metadata rather than in-game text, but it shows which languages a major platform treats as essential.

A broader first wave for a PC game is often described as FIGS + CJK + RU + PT-BR: French, Italian, German and Spanish, plus Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Russian and Brazilian Portuguese. Few small studios can afford all of these at once, which is why the order matters.

How do platform and genre change the answer?

The best first languages for a game depend heavily on where it is sold and how much text it contains. The same game can justify a different order on PC, console and mobile.

PC games on Steam

Steam lists the languages it fully supports across the platform, with their API codes, in Languages Supported on Steam. Simplified Chinese and Russian usually rank high for PC because of the size of those player groups in the survey.

Console games

Console releases are often planned by region and retail territory. EFIGS plus Japanese remains common, and platform metadata rules, such as Microsoft's, set a minimum for the store page.

Mobile games

Mobile games reach a wider spread of countries. Apple says the App Store "is available in 175 regions and 50 languages" (Apple Developer: Localization), so mobile studios often localise store listings into many more languages than the game itself.

Text-heavy versus text-light games

A game with 3,000 words of interface text can be localised into ten languages for less than a narrative game with 300,000 words costs in one. Text-light games can go wide early; story-driven games need to rank languages more strictly.

How do you choose your first localisation languages, step by step?

Choosing launch languages works best as a short, data-led exercise rather than a guess. The steps below can usually be completed with the analytics you already have.

1. Pull your own data. Export wishlists, store page visits, demo players or beta sign-ups by country and language from your platform dashboards.
2. Compare it with the market data. Check whether your audience matches the Steam survey pattern or skews towards particular regions, as some genres do.
3. Count your words. Export all player-facing strings and count them, separating interface text, dialogue, item descriptions and store copy.
4. Estimate the cost per language. Ask for a quote per language that includes review and in-game testing; our guide to what drives game localisation cost explains the line items.
5. Check culturalisation and rating risk. Some content needs changes for certain markets; our article on game culturalisation explains what to look for.
6. Rank by players gained per pound. Divide the likely audience gain by the cost, then pick the top three to six languages for launch.
7. Plan the second wave. Schedule further languages after launch, once sales data by region is available.

Should you localise the store page before the game?

Localising the store page first is a cheap way to test demand in a language before paying for the whole game. Valve notes that "Steam allows you to localize your store page content, including written description, images, and trailers."

A translated store page with localised screenshots costs a fraction of a full game localisation. If wishlists from a region rise after the page goes live, that language moves up your list. Be accurate on the page, though: Steam lets you declare, for each language, whether you support the interface, full audio or subtitles, and players notice when the page promises more than the game delivers.

Which language variants need separate versions?

Several major game languages come in variants that platforms treat as separate languages, so you need to choose the variant as well as the language. Steam has separate codes for Spanish-Spain and Spanish-Latin America, for Portuguese and Portuguese-Brazil, and for Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

• Spanish: Spain and Latin America differ in vocabulary and forms of address. See Spanish for Spain vs Latin America.
• Portuguese: Brazilian Portuguese has the larger player base on Steam. Our guide to European vs Brazilian Portuguese explains the differences.
• Chinese: Simplified Chinese is used in mainland China, and Traditional Chinese mainly in Taiwan and Hong Kong. They use different character sets and often different terminology.

Common mistakes when choosing launch languages

Most poor language choices come from guessing rather than measuring. These are the mistakes that cost studios most:

• Copying another studio's list. A competitor's languages reflect its genre and audience, not yours.
• Choosing by population, not by players. A large population does not always mean a large paying audience for your genre on your platform.
• Ignoring text volume. Committing to ten languages before counting the words can exhaust the budget before testing.
• Skipping in-game testing. Translation without linguistic quality assurance (LQA) often ships with truncated or untranslated text.
• Forgetting fonts. Chinese, Japanese and Korean need fonts with the right glyphs, which affects UI layout and file size.
• Launching languages with no support plan. Patches, updates and player support all need translating too.

For the wider picture, including the nine steps of a localisation project, see our complete guide to video game localisation.

How TranslationWorks can help

TranslationWorks is a UK-based translation agency that localises games, apps and store pages into 150+ languages using native-speaking linguists. Our IT and gaming translation work covers interface strings, dialogue, item descriptions and store listings, and our transcreation service adapts trailers, taglines and marketing copy for each market.

If you are still choosing your launch languages, send us your string export and target platforms, and we can quote each language separately so you can compare options before you commit. We are ISO 17100 certified, ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 registered and Cyber Essentials certified, which matters when you share unreleased builds. Request a free game localisation quote and we will reply within 24 hours.