You open your library with an evening to spare, scroll for a while and close it again without playing anything. If that sounds familiar, you are in good company, and it does not mean something is wrong with you. This guide looks at why choosing a game can feel hard, what research can and cannot tell us about it, and a few ideas you can try if you like. Take what suits you and leave the rest.

Why a big library can feel like a lot

Many of us now have more games than evenings. Some came from sales, some from subscriptions, some were free. Each one is a small question: is this the right one for tonight?

There is a research thread that touches on this. In 2000, Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper published three experimental studies, in field and laboratory settings. According to the abstract, people were more likely to buy gourmet jams or chocolates, or to take on an optional class essay, when offered a limited array of 6 options than a larger one of 24 or 30. The abstract does not say which number belongs to which study. It also reports that participants were more satisfied with their selections, and wrote better essays, when their original set of options had been limited.

These were jams, chocolates and an essay, though, not game libraries, so we cannot say the same holds for a Steam shelf. We have read the abstract only, not the details of each study. Take it as a prompt to think about your own library, not as proof that it is the problem.

Tiredness and deciding

You may have heard that willpower works like a battery that empties over the day. That idea is called ego depletion, and the evidence is mixed. A 2016 project in Perspectives on Psychological Science repeated one standardized version of the experiment, a task followed by a second task, in 23 laboratories with 2,141 participants in total. It found a small effect, with a confidence interval that included zero (d = 0.04, 95% CI from -0.07 to 0.15). Its authors note that earlier meta-analyses had questioned the size and the existence of the effect.

So that replication did not find the effect for that protocol. It is one study of one protocol, and it does not settle the wider theory, so we draw no conclusion about evenings from it either way.

That does not stop you from noticing your own evenings. If you tend to feel flat after a long day and scrolling feels like work, it is fair to say so and to try something lighter. You do not need a theory to justify it.

Why unplayed games can weigh on you

In 1985, Hal Arkes and Catherine Blumer described the sunk cost effect: a greater tendency to continue something once money, effort or time has been invested. In a field study, theater customers who had paid more for a season subscription attended more plays over the next six months. The authors present evidence that the reasoning rests on a wish not to appear wasteful. Their other studies used questionnaires. None involved game libraries.

Here is a thought, not a finding: if you have ever felt you should play a game because you paid for it, you may recognize that pull. A purchase is in the past. The question left is what you would enjoy tonight, and you can decide a game is not for you.

A few ideas to try

None of these has been tested on game libraries, so treat them as options, not rules.

• A short shelf. Pick a few games for the week, say one story game, one to play with friends and one easy one for tired evenings, and hide the rest for now. Nothing is deleted.
• Match the game to your mood. On an evening with energy, something demanding may be fun. On a flat one, a familiar game or a gentle one might fit better.
• A comfort replay. Going back to a game you know is a perfectly good way to play. Your library serves you, not the other way round.
• Permission to stop. You can play an hour of a long game and move on. There is no exam at the end.
• A short trial. If you cannot choose, start anything for a few minutes. If it does not click, stop and pick another. Some people find starting is the hard part.

A gentle closing thought

Choosing can feel like a small test you could fail. It is not one. A decent game you actually play is worth more than a perfect one you keep looking for, and some evenings the right choice is the one you can start in a minute. If scrolling is making your evenings feel worse, trying one of the ideas above is a kind way to find out what helps.

Sources

Named here as plain text. Pages read in November 2026.

• Iyengar, S. S. and Lepper, M. R. (2000), “When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995-1006
• Hagger, M. S. and colleagues (2016), “A Multilab Preregistered Replication of the Ego-Depletion Effect”, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(4), 546-573
• Arkes, H. R. and Blumer, C. (1985), “The psychology of sunk cost”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 35, 124-140