The percentage trap
The discount percentage on any store page is calculated against that store's own listed regular price — sometimes called the MSRP, sometimes the "strike-through" price. That number can be anything the store wants it to be. A publisher can quietly raise the base price a few weeks before a sale, then "discount" it 60% back to what it used to cost. Technically true, functionally meaningless. The percentage is a marketing number, not a comparison you can trust.
What you actually need: a reference price
The only useful question is not "how big is the discount?" but "how does this price compare to every price this game has ever had, across every store?" That's what pricing nerds call the historical low — the lowest confirmed price the game has ever hit anywhere. Once you know that number, the discount percentage becomes irrelevant. If today's price is at or near the historical low, it's a real deal. If it's well above, it isn't — no matter how big the badge is.
"All-time low" — and how close is close enough
You'll rarely hit the exact all-time low on demand; those prices usually appear briefly during major seasonal sales (summer, autumn, winter, publisher week). A good working rule: within 10% of the historical low is an excellent buy, within 25% is a fair buy, and anything above that is worth waiting on unless you specifically want to play the game this week. Games with recent, deep price history are safer bets than brand-new releases, which haven't had time to accumulate a proper low yet.
How Degoran surfaces this automatically
Every price comparison on Degoran shows the current live price alongside the historical low we've tracked from stores across the EU. When today's price is at or near that low, we flag it — you don't have to keep a spreadsheet or check five sites yourself. The idea is simple: if we tell you it's a good time to buy, it's because the number actually says so, not because a store's marketing team wants you to think so.
A few other things worth checking
Regional pricing (EU prices are often noticeably better than US ones once VAT is in the picture), key-store legitimacy (stick to authorised resellers — the ones we list — rather than grey-market keys with no publisher relationship), and edition creep (a "deluxe" edition on sale is rarely as good a deal as the base game at its own historical low). A price is only a good price for the game you actually want.
The short version
Ignore the percentage. Look at the historical low. If today's price is close to it, buy; if not, wait — the sale wheel comes round every few months. Or let us do the watching for you.