If you have been in the world of buying cheap Steam keys, then Fanatical and their mystery bundles are no stranger to you. The idea is you can pay different tiers to get a bundle of mystery keys. This is always so enticing and I have fallen victim to it many of times, but is it worth it?
According to Google, Fanatical works with officially licensed publishers to source their keys. They are a UK company that is part of the Fandom company. I cannot find much information about where these mystery keys come from, but one would assume they are just leftover keys on the site that aren’t selling.
The Cost
The latest deal on Fanatical is the Mystery Star Bundle. You can pay $13.99 for 20 mystery keys, $1 for 1,$4.79 for 5, $7.49 for 10, and $10.79 for 15. You would be crazy not to go for that $20 tier and that is what I did for this article. This is also the tier I usually buy when they have these deals (which is quite often).
I had $25 in my PayPal account, so I used my own version of Boy Math and determined that it was kind of like I got these for free. Well, at least in my mind for my own well-being. For the sake of the article, I still spend $13.99. If you want to get your own Mystery Bundle, just hit the button below.
Savings
For this next part, I wanted to list every game I got, and then look it up on Steam to find the price it is without a sale. I then will compare that total cost to what I paid for the bundle.
- Flashback: $9.99
- The Ascent: $29.99
- The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters: $14.99
- Chasm: $19.99
- StrikeForce Kitty: $7.99
- Tiny Life: $14.99
- Holy Potatoes! A Spy Story?!: $9.99
- My Big Sister: Remastered: $7.99
- OTTTD: $7.99
- Abandon Ship: $24.99
- Minute of Islands: $19.99
- INDUSTRIA: $19.99
- Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery:Â $12.99
- She and the Light Bearer: $9.99
- Devilated: $19.99
- Eldest Souls: $19.99
- The Legend of Tianding: $19.99
- Animal Rescuer: $14.99
- Vanaris Tactics: $9.99
- Valfaris: $24.99
If I were to buy all of these games from Steam without any on sale, I would be spending $321.80 (not counting tax). This gives me a grand savings of $307.81 from purchasing the $13.99 tier on Fanatical. Fanatical also likes to tempt you to buy again by immediately sending you a 5% off coupon which you can apply to another mystery bundle or another key from their store.
Worth It?
My Home Screen Full of New Games
I was fully ready to go in here and be so negative. I even planned on saying that buying a bundle from Fanatical is like picking 20 games from the Wii Shovelware Bin at Walmart in 2010. However, I got a great bundle here! I am actually interested in playing about 14/20 games I got. So I guess thanks Fanatical? My backlog just got even bigger! (Check our guide on tackling your backlog here.)
I am always surprised by the huge variety of genres I get in these bundles. In this, I got some visual novels, VR games, RPGs, indie games, tactics, and more!
Should you buy a Fanatical bundle for yourself? That is hard to say. When I first got my Steam account 2 years ago, it was awesome because I could add so many games to my library and would actually try them. If you have a huge backlog, I would say maybe hold off because you are just going to add to it. Also, know that it is a complete gamble and you can get a ton of junk too.
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