I recently decided to quantify my physical videogame backlog to 1) hold myself more accountable for playing games I buy and 2) seeing how bad my collecting had gotten. My count of games in my physical backlog was 56. It was moderately higher than I thought it would be, but not wildly out of line. This exercise got me thinking about collecting, backlogs, videogaming in general, and how to juggle all of them.
The Collector
For the vast majority of my videogaming life I would treat physical videogames as temporary possessions. Dating back to stacking up all of my Super Nintendo games to scrape together money for a PlayStation, all videogames I owned would get sold at some point. As recently as the Nintendo Switch and PS4 eras, I would purchase games, beat them as quickly as I could, and resell them. The logic was sound; the quicker I beat a $60 game, the more I could get when reselling it. It would often end up costing me $20 or so to get to play a branch new game if I could sell it fast enough, not a bad deal in a post-Blockbuster world!
At some point, roughly five years ago, my mindset flipped. I didn’t want to keep everything, but I did want to hang onto some games I absolutely loved. Maybe so I could replay them later or maybe just so I could look at them and reminisce about the good times we had together. A videogame collector was born.
I will say that I only purchase videogames that fall under one of these two categories:
- A game I am absolutely interested in playing.
- A game that I have previously played and loved.
To me, this is a reasonable set of criteria. The problem lies in how easy it is for a game to cross that first threshold for me.
I have gotten better over the years, but at one point I decided I needed to purchase all three Prince of Persia games on PS2 despite never having played any of them. Naturally, I played the first, enjoyed it but didn’t love it, sold it, and still have the other two on my shelf contributing to that backlog.
The Backlog
Backlog is a funny term to wrestle with once you admit you are actually a collector. I own a copy of Final Fantasy VII on PS1. I haven’t played this particular copy ever and haven’t played that game at all since the late ‘90s. Is this a backlog game for me? I say no, but others might disagree.
As noted, my personal backlog currently sits at over 50 games. The vast majority of this is in PS1 and PS2 games. Looking at the list, I am still excited to play almost all of them. Some highlights at the moment include Mega Man Legends, Spider, Tenchu 2, Ape Escape 2, Onimusha 2, and inFamous. It also includes newer titles such as Death Stranding 2 that I picked up on a holiday sale and Metal Gear Solid V which will complete my numbered MGS experience. It’s a wide-ranging backlog which helps keep things interesting in case I don’t actually want to play three PS2 Prince of Persia games in a row.
It’s not all fun and games, though, as some of the games have fallen way down my interest level since purchasing them. Do I really want to tackle Wild Arms 1 and 2? No offense to the series, I’ve heard great things about it, but having two JRPGs in a single series I’ve never played a second of really makes me wonder what I was thinking when picking them up.
There is joy to be found in collecting, which is why so many people do so. Having something sitting on a shelf might seem like a waste from afar, but knowing it is there, the thrill of finding it in the wild, and many other intangible benefits make collecting a very popular hobby. Does this mean people who don’t play all of their games should feel bad? I don’t think so; everyone can collect, play, not play, etc… as they wish.
Why Bother?
If my stance is “do what makes you happy”, why am I even bothering tracking a personal backlog? Great question, hypothetical reader.
For me, I think it starts with accountability. I very much do not want a gigantic shelf full of games I have and will never play. I have no qualms with those who do, but that is not my goal when it comes to purchasing physical videogames. I want to make sure the games I buy are games I intend to play, and simply tracking them in a spreadsheet is a simple way of attaching a number, and accountability, to that goal.
While I’m fortunate enough to have some disposable income, I don’t have unlimited funds to spend on endless collecting. Wouldn’t that be fun, though? I started tracking my spending and selling of videogames last year and it really helped me reign things in. Simply being aware of the dollar amount goes a long way.
Spend less, slow the backlog growth, be more selective about what I’m bringing in. These all sound like wins to me.
The Plan
I do intend to tackle my backlog in a meaningful way. I have, in fact, already started by prioritizing a few backlog games recently. I want to put some more structure around this to help hold me to actually accomplishing a goal. Not too much as I think strictly prescribing what games I’m going to play well in advance is a fantastic way to suck much of the fun out of the hobby, but definitely some structure.
Given that 56, give or take, game backlog, I think a reasonable goal is to set some sort of backlog-to-purchase ratio to try to stick to. “I can only add a new game once I cross off N games from my backlog.” Solve for N.
Trying to apply some science to this, I finished 74 games in 2025, or 6 per month. That’s a lot, I don’t expect to hit that mark in 2026, but that’s a baseline to work from. I probably brought in about 50 games in total last year. While a net win, that results in a very slow pace for tackling a 50+ game backlog.
Given all of this, crunching some numbers, I think it’s a reasonable goal to clear three games off of my backlog for each one I add to it. Reasonable in practice? I have no idea, but it’s worth laying down as a goal! If my math is correct, this would put me on a path towards dropping my backlog by about 30 games by the end of 2026. A tidy backlog of 25ish games? That sounds great to me!
Wrapping It Up
The whole idea of a backlog gets murky once you admit you are collecting games, not just buying games to play. It’s a blurry line at best and everyone will approach it differently. I own up to my collector tendencies, but don’t want to fully give up the idea of actually playing the things I buy so I’m trying to make a meaningful dent in my backlog in 2026. I want to both play more games I already own and bring in fewer titles to add to the pile. Can I do this? Who knows! But I have a pile of 56 games I’m excited to play, and that’s a pretty good place to start.
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