How many entries do you have and how many games you won?

311 entered, 2 won, i guess im a bit lucky.

I'm a firefighter; I've saved 150 people from fires but all of them were dead except one - he gave me a coupon for 33% off a VALVe title.

I put him back in the house.

368/1 but "Gift not received" i win maybe when i have 34 enteries.

I can tell you it is better not to win than to win and not get a gift.

Patience is a virtue.

462 entries, 1 win(before site went public)

Threads like this always make me wonder how so many people can have so little understanding of probabilities and statistics. Luck will only take you so far.

Personally, I've entered 33 draws since very recently discovering this site. I consider that number pretty meaningless, since the number of other entrants in those same draws has ranged from 66 to over 4000, and without that information as well there's no way of telling how my luck really ranks. Still, more than half of the draws I have entered fell into the 300-600 entrants range, so that tells me I can probably expect to win one game every 500 or so entries, if I continue with this site and the numbers don't change significantly. But my odds are only that good because I specifically avoid bothering to enter most draws with near or over 1000 entries.

I strongly suspect that many of the people complaining about not winning anything in their first few hundred entries don't even look at the number of other entrants. There's nothing wrong with that - not everyone likes numbers as much as I personally do. Not to mention that it would be utterly selfish to enter purely based on odds of winning, instead of more important factors like whether or not you'll actually play the game in question. If the game you want is popular, high numbers of other entrants (and thus low odds of winning) are just the way things are if you want to try to win it.

Nonetheless, surely it doesn't take a mathematics degree to realise that if a thousand people enter, any given one of them only has a one in a thousand chance of winning (that's 0.1%, or a tenth of a single percent chance). So, repeat this procedure several hundred times and each of them will win (very) roughly one game per thousand draws they enter. Some will get luckier than this, and win more than that, but the flipside is that that means there will always be other people who win less, and thus have to be more patient.

Should people be bothered by these low chances? Heck no! We're still talking potential free games! Plus every entry has MUCH higher odds of winning than with regular lotteries or Steam's own major prize draws. And I know I've personally done nothing whatsoever in exchange for this, so far.

Hopefully I'll donate a few giveaways of my own down the track, because that's what keeps this sort of system working. Hopefully other people will to. But in the meanwhile, I've certainly got no right to complain about the generous people handing out free stuff actually doing so in a fair and balanced manner.

So next time you're feeling like the unluckiest sod on Earth for not winning a specific draw, take a look at the number of other entrants and keep in mind that all but one of those people will be in the exact same place you are. That's a LOT of non-winners for every actual winner. If that number of entrants is higher than the total number of draws you've entered so far, you're not 'unlucky' at all, and you're probably not going to get much sympathy for not having won anything yet.

Fortunately, this site has a lot of giveaway draws, so things will all even out in time. You just have to be patient and keep entering.

It's either that, or deliberately only enter draws for things most people avoid, to steal games you'll never use from the few people who actually want them, just so you can brag about your 'luck'. But let's hope nobody around here is that petty.

65 Entries 1 semi-win (still waiting for it, its been 4 days :/) half life 2

15 entries 10 wins this site got me Skyrim, Deus EX HR, Dirt 3, Portal 2, The Witcher 2, Dead Island, and also some cheap games.

Giveaways Entered
480
Gifts Won
0

357 entries
won 1 fake giveaway... I think I won it near my entry #170

920 entries/55 games won

717/0

281...

So far I have entered 7 giveaways and won 5. Too bad the 2 lost were games I actually wanted. :/

Don't be fooled people. This is a variation of those 'waaah! waaah! I didn't get to win' threads.

0/10

Is what I would rate this topic.

604 entered, 0 won :D

393 entries, 11 won. But only one of these was public.

303 and win nothing, but i have a feeling that's about to change... http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/a7lgY/tunnel-rats

5/1200.

332 entries/3 wins

377 lost, 11 still pending...
388 - 0 then.

13/1

400 / 0

528 and 4 real wins. The first was fake.

If you want a real good chance of winning a game.
http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/a9Yj7/counter-strike-source