Subscriptions and favorites are the Steam Workshop's two demand signals — and they measure different things. A subscription is install intent: "I want this in my game." A favorite is return intent: "I want to come back to this." It's a bookmark, a save-for-later, a signal that a player found something worth remembering even if they haven't committed to installing it yet.
Most Workshop analysis — including most of the public conversation — treats favorites as a minor footnote to subscriptions. But read at ecosystem scale, the favorites graph is a distinct demand layer: it shows which mods and games are building bookmark momentum right now, independent of installs. A mod can be heavily bookmarked while barely subscribed (a config you copy, not install), or heavily subscribed while barely bookmarked (a utility you install and forget).
Using ModSignal's live dataset — 7.26 million active Workshop items across 401 tracked games, with per-item 7-day velocity metrics — we mapped the bookmark economy. Here is what 1 million weekly favorites reveal about return-intent on the Workshop.
The bookmark economy at a glance
In the last 7 days, 89,436 active mods collectively gained 1,081,861 new favorites — against 32.99 million new subscriptions and 29.1 million new views. Favorites are the rarest and most deliberate of the three signals: roughly 1 favorite for every 30 subscriptions.
That rarity is exactly why favorites matter. A subscription can be a one-click impulse; a favorite is a deliberate "I'll come back to this." When a mod's favorites grow fast, it means players are returning to it — the strongest leading indicator of durable demand.
Project Zomboid owns the bookmark economy
Ranked by 7-day favorites velocity, one ecosystem dominates:
| Game | Weekly favorites | Mods gaining favorites |
|---|---|---|
| Project Zomboid | 358,580 | 1,523 |
| RimWorld | 107,773 | 3,460 |
| Aimlabs | 77,908 | 1,203 |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | 76,475 | 2,001 |
| Garry's Mod | 75,371 | 2,416 |
| Slay the Spire 2 | 50,459 | 1,716 |
| The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth | 31,308 | 2,177 |
| Don't Starve Together | 25,376 | 1,544 |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 18,022 | 788 |
| Cities: Skylines | 17,644 | 1,766 |
Project Zomboid's 358,580 weekly favorites is more than the next three ecosystems combined (RimWorld + Aimlabs + L4D2 = 262,156). This is the same Build 42 wave that dominates subscription momentum — but the bookmark lead is even more lopsided. Zomboid players aren't just installing the new Build 42 mods; they're bookmarking them to return to, which signals a deeper, stickier engagement than raw installs.
The concentration is stark: the top 100 mods by weekly favorites captured 17.9% of all platform favorites (193,303 of 1,081,861), and the top 1,000 captured 49.7%. Bookmark demand, like subscription demand, is a power law — a small set of mods hoard the return-intent.
The divergence: bookmarked but never subscribed
The most interesting signal in the bookmark graph is where favorites and subscriptions diverge. In the last 7 days, 23,129 mods gained favorites while gaining zero new subscriptions — roughly 26% of all mods that gained any favorites.
These are mods players are saving but not installing. Some are genuinely useful-but-niche (a config you copy once). Others are the Workshop's quiet "watchlist" — mods players are tracking for a future update or a future playthrough. For a creator, a high favorites-to-subscriptions ratio is a signal that your mod is being remembered even if it isn't being installed yet — often a precursor to a subscription spike.
Aimlabs: the bookmark machine
No ecosystem shows the favorites/subscriptions divergence more sharply than Aimlabs. Its top mods by weekly favorites are almost pure bookmark plays:
| Mod | Weekly favorites | Weekly views | Weekly subs | Lifetime subs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VCT NA - yay | 12,683 | 71 | 0 | 2,449,156 |
| Gridshot 3x3 | 10,403 | 150 | 0 | 1,757,661 |
| VCT LATAM - kiNgg | 7,596 | 70 | 0 | 3,182,032 |
| VCT NA - TenZ | 2,517 | 33 | 0 | 2,905,937 |
These are pro-player crosshair and aim-training configs. Players bookmark them to copy the settings — not to subscribe. VCT NA - yay gained 12,683 favorites from just 71 views (a 178x favorites-to-views ratio) with zero new subscriptions. The bookmark IS the product: a config you save to replicate, not install.
This is the purest "return-intent" economy on the Workshop. Aimlabs' 12.19% favorites-per-subscription ratio (vs Project Zomboid's 3.71%) confirms it: these mods are bookmarked far more than they're subscribed, because their value is in being referenced, not installed.
Where players bookmark most
Two ratios capture the bookmark economy's texture. The bookmark rate (favorites ÷ views) shows how often browsing turns into saving; the favorites-per-subscription ratio shows how bookmark-heavy an ecosystem is relative to installs.
Highest bookmark rate (favorites per 100 views):
| Game | Bookmark rate |
|---|---|
| Garry's Mod | 7.62% |
| ARK: Survival Evolved | 7.44% |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | 6.60% |
| Arma 3 | 5.46% |
| Slay the Spire 2 | 5.11% |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 | 5.00% |
| Palworld | 4.70% |
Highest favorites-per-subscription (bookmark-heavy):
| Game | Favorites per 100 subs |
|---|---|
| Left 4 Dead 2 | 16.52% |
| Aimlabs | 12.19% |
| Slay the Spire 2 | 11.22% |
| ARK: Survival Evolved | 7.46% |
| Garry's Mod | 7.22% |
| Palworld | 6.79% |
Left 4 Dead 2 is the standout: 16.52 favorites per 100 subscriptions — the highest bookmark depth of any large ecosystem. L4D2 players bookmark mods (animations, weapon skins, map packs) to return to them across play sessions, a pattern that matches the game's replay-heavy, co-op structure. Slay the Spire 2 (11.22%) and ARK (7.46%) show the same "bookmark to return" behavior in replayable games.
What the bookmark graph is really telling you
Read across the whole dataset, the favorites graph exposes a demand layer that subscriptions miss:
- Bookmarks are return-intent, not install-intent. A favorite means "I'll come back to this." It's a leading indicator of durable demand, distinct from the one-click impulse of a subscription.
- Project Zomboid's Build 42 wave is even stickier than its install numbers suggest. 358,580 weekly favorites — more than the next three ecosystems combined — means players aren't just installing; they're returning.
- Aimlabs is a pure bookmark economy. Pro crosshair configs are bookmarked 178x more than they're viewed, and never subscribed — their value is in being referenced, not installed.
- 26% of favorited mods gained zero new subscriptions. The Workshop's "watchlist" is real: mods being saved for later, often a precursor to a subscription spike.
- Bookmark demand is a power law. The top 100 mods hold 17.9% of all weekly favorites; the top 1,000 hold 49.7%.
For a creator, favorites velocity is the signal to watch before subscriptions. A mod that's being bookmarked but not yet installed is a mod with latent demand — players are saving it for the moment it becomes relevant. For a studio planning Workshop strategy, the bookmark graph shows which ecosystems build returning audiences, not just installing ones.
The data behind this article
All figures come from ModSignal's live database, which continuously snapshots Steam Workshop via the Steam Web API. "Weekly favorites" sums favorites_7d across active items — the change in each item's favorite count over the trailing 7 days, computed from snapshot history. "Weekly views" and "weekly subscriptions" are the same 7-day deltas for views and subscriptions. An item is "active" when it is current and indexed. Totals reflect all 7,257,393 active mods across 401 tracked games. These numbers are a live snapshot and move as the Workshop graph refreshes. All figures current as of September 2026.
To explore any ecosystem's favorites, installs, and growth velocity in real time — and spot rising creators before they peak — visit ModSignal.
ModSignal tracks 7.26 million Steam Workshop mods across 401 games in real time. Browse games, search mods, or check pricing for API access.