How to Build a Game Backlog Spreadsheet in Google Sheets
A game backlog spreadsheet is a single Google Sheet with columns for title, platform, status, priority, hours played, and notes, plus dropdowns and a few formulas for completion stats. This guide shows you the exact column setup and formulas, built so you can adapt each part to how you actually play.
What columns should a game backlog spreadsheet include?
A game backlog spreadsheet needs nine columns: Title, Status, Platform, Genre, Priority, Hours Played, Estimated Hours, Notes, and Date Finished. Anything else is decoration until your sheet survives a month of use.
The nine columns that do the work
| Column | Values | Why it earns its place |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Text | The row's identity; keep it exactly as it appears on Steam |
| Status | Backlog / Playing / Finished / Dropped / Wishlist | One dropdown, no ambiguity about what's active |
| Platform | PC / Switch / PS5 / Xbox | Tells you what you can actually launch tonight |
| Genre | Roguelike / RPG / Platformer / etc. | Lets you filter by mood, not just priority |
| Priority | 1-3 | Three tiers beat a 1-10 scale you'll never maintain |
| Hours Played | Number | Feeds the completion formulas later |
| Estimated Hours | Number | Makes scope creep visible before you commit |
| Notes | Text | Where "stuck on boss 3" lives instead of memory |
| Date Finished | Date | Powers monthly play stats |
In the order above, the columns run A to I: Title is column A, Status is B, Platform is C, and Hours Played is F. The formulas later in this guide use those letters.
Columns to skip until you need them
Skip Developer, Release Year, and Rating columns at the start. Every extra dropdown is a maintenance tax, and empty columns train you to abandon the sheet. Add a column only when you catch yourself wanting to filter by it twice in a week. The same discipline applies to task boards: if you're tracking studio work alongside your play backlog, compare how Inferno handles boards in our Inferno vs HacknPlan comparison before duplicating structures. For the Status and Platform dropdowns themselves, Google's guide to in-cell dropdown lists walks through the setup.
How do you set up status and platform dropdowns in Google Sheets?
Creating a data validation dropdown
Select the Status column, then go to Data > Data validation > Add rule. Set Criteria to "Dropdown" and enter these values: Backlog, Playing, Paused, Finished, Dropped, Wishlist. Use the same process for Platform (Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, Epic, Itch, GOG) and Genre (Roguelike, RPG, Platformer, Strategy, Horror, Puzzle, Sim, Other). If a value is missing, add it to the rule later; the dropdown updates everywhere at once.
Color-coding status with conditional formatting
With the Status column still selected, open Format > Conditional formatting. Add one rule per status: set "Text is exactly" to the value, then pick a fill color. A workable scheme: green for Finished, yellow for Playing, grey for Dropped, red for Backlog items you want to push this month.
The same dropdown pattern works for any tracked list, including a build pipeline on a team board. If your crew outgrows the sheet, the reasoning behind that jump is covered on our pricing page.
Which formulas calculate backlog completion and hours played?
Three formulas do the heavy lifting: COUNTIF for counting games by status, SUMIF for totaling hours, and a division for your completion rate. Syntax for both functions is documented in the Google Sheets function list.
Completion percentage with COUNTIF
Status lives in column B, rows 2 through 100. Count finished games with =COUNTIF(B2:B100,"Finished") and divide by all games with any status: =COUNTIF(B2:B100,"Finished")/COUNTA(B2:B100). Format the cell as a percentage and you have your completion rate at a glance. Add a second COUNTIF for "Playing" if you want to see how many games are in flight at once.
Tracking hours with SUMIF
If column F holds hours played, =SUMIF(B2:B100,"Finished",F2:F100) totals hours spent only on games you actually shipped. Pair it with =SUM(F2:F100) to see what share of your playtime went to completed games versus abandoned ones.
That ratio is the number worth staring at. If 200 of your 400 logged hours went to games marked "Dropped," your backlog problem is not volume, it is selection: you are buying games you do not actually want to finish. The burn-down math below only helps once the finish-to-drop ratio is honest, because a backlog full of games you will never touch shrinks on paper the same way a real one does, which is to say not at all. Check that ratio monthly before you celebrate a falling total.
A simple burn-down row per month
Add one row per month with the total backlog count on the first of the month, entered manually or via =COUNTA(B2:B100) snapshotted as a value. Over three or four months the trend tells you whether you are burning down the backlog or just treading water, the same way a milestone burndown shows whether a sprint is on track.
How do you import your Steam or console library into the sheet?
Exporting your Steam list
Steam has no one-click CSV export, so use a semi-automated route. Open your profile's Games page, and either use a community import tool that reads your public library into a spreadsheet, or copy the game names and playtime columns manually from the library view. Paste them into a "Steam Import" tab, then map them into your main sheet with columns for Title, Hours Played, and Status set to "Backlog" by default.
For a manual approach that takes ten minutes: sort your library by playtime, copy only the games with under two hours logged (your actual unplayed pile), and paste those rows in. Re-run this once a quarter rather than syncing live.
Console libraries: what is actually possible
PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch offer no export at all. Your options are manual entry or a screenshot-and-transcribe session. Keep it lean: add Title, Platform, and Status only, and skip hours since consoles surface playtime inconsistently. Ten to fifteen titles per session is realistic.
The same manual-entry reality applies to work tools, which is why we compared import and setup effort honestly in our Inferno vs Codecks breakdown.
How should you prioritize which backlog game to play next?
A priority score turns your sheet from a list into a picker. You already know your library's size from the import step, where playtime data comes straight from Steam's help and support pages and your library view.
A three-factor priority score
Add three columns to the right of Date Finished, each scored 1-5: Interest in column J (how much you want it right now), Time cost in column K (5 for a short game you can finish in a weekend, 1 for a 100-hour RPG), and Mood fit in column L (does it match what you feel like playing this week). Then a fourth column, M, computes the total. In row 2:
=J2+K2+L2
Weight them if one matters more. A tiny crew lead with limited evenings might use =J2*2+K2+L2.
Sorting with a single formula
Put this in an empty cell to get a ranked list without touching your data:
=SORT(FILTER(A2:M, B2:B="Backlog"), 13, FALSE)
It filters to unplayed games and sorts by score, which is the 13th column from A. When you finish one, change its status and the list updates. The same principle applies to your studio's backlog: a scored, sorted view beats gut feel, which is why we compared structured boards against lighter tools in our Inferno vs Trello breakdown.
When is a spreadsheet better than Notion or a dedicated tracker app for a game backlog?
Where spreadsheets win
A game backlog spreadsheet wins on speed and control. You can rebuild the whole structure in an afternoon, change a dropdown without waiting for a feature request, and see every column at once. Notion is stronger for linked notes and reviews, but its databases get slow and fiddly once you add formulas and filters. Dedicated trackers handle imports well, and console players can pull activity history from Xbox's official support pages, but you trade flexibility for their fixed schema.
Where they lose, honestly
A sheet has no notifications, no comments threaded on a row, and no mobile app worth using. If you want your backlog visible during a studio conversation, or you want play habits and production milestones in one place, a spreadsheet is the wrong tool. That is the gap our own product, Inferno, targets: a shared workspace where a tiny crew plans the build, not the play list. But Inferno will not import your Steam library or compute hours played the way your sheet does, and if you game solo, it is overkill. Match the tool to who updates it.
How do you maintain the backlog sheet so it doesn't get abandoned?
Design for lazy updates
The sheet dies when updating it costs more effort than skipping it. Keep the default state "Playing" with no date, so logging a session is one dropdown change. Use data validation for status and platform so you never type free text. Skip ratings, notes, and review columns until you actually want them; an empty column you feel guilty about is what kills trackers. If a field isn't pulling its weight by week three, delete it.
A five-minute weekly ritual
Pick one recurring slot, Sunday night or your studio's planning morning, and do the same three things: move anything you finished to "Finished", set the next game's status to "Playing", and glance at your completion formula. Tie it to an existing habit, like your Monday sprint planning, rather than relying on memory. Two minutes of upkeep beats a two-hour quarterly cleanup you'll never do.
FAQ
What is the best game backlog spreadsheet template for Google Sheets?
Build your own with nine columns: Title, Status, Platform, Genre, Priority, Hours Played, Estimated Hours, Notes, and Date Finished. Downloaded templates carry columns you will never fill, and empty columns kill trackers. A sheet you set up yourself in an afternoon with custom dropdowns survives longer.
How do I track my video game backlog for free?
Google Sheets costs nothing and covers everything you need. Set up dropdowns via Data validation for Status and Platform, add a COUNTIF formula for your completion rate, and color-code statuses with conditional formatting. For console games with no export option, enter ten to fifteen titles manually per session.
Can I import my Steam library into a spreadsheet automatically?
Not with one click. Steam offers no native CSV export, so use a community import tool that reads your public library, or copy titles and playtime manually. The faster manual route is to sort by playtime, copy only games under two hours logged, and paste those in. Re-run this process quarterly rather than syncing live.
How do I calculate my backlog completion percentage in Sheets?
Use two formulas: =COUNTIF(B2:B100,"Finished") counts finished games, and dividing that by =COUNTA(B2:B100) gives your completion rate. Format the cell as a percentage. Pair it with =SUMIF(B2:B100,"Finished",F2:F100) to see what share of your total hours went to games you actually finished.
Is a spreadsheet or an app better for tracking a game backlog?
A sheet wins on speed and control: you can rebuild it in an afternoon and change dropdowns instantly. Apps and Notion add notifications, comments, and mobile access, which matter if others see your backlog. If you game solo, a spreadsheet is enough. If you want play habits and studio work together, use a dedicated tool.