Yea it counts. Because valve cannot see what is going on in the game. Only that the game is running.

Playtime is counted via the game exe running as it also is on Ubisoft Connect etc.

Originally posted by klllb0t:

Because I really feel like it shouldn't. Is there a way to like see how much time I#ve spent in an actual game, not compiling shaders or perusing the options menu, or like starting a game and then it was just in the menu?

In a perfect world you might be right. But, reality is how much detail do you want game companies observing? Because to accurately track your "actual play time" they're gonna need to see everything you're doing. It won't just happen magically, and the invasion of privacy for a few minutes extra time for refunds might not be the trade off you imagine when you get down to it. And given the choice between approximate tracking like we currently have and detailed tracked that most people, when faced with the choice, don't want. Well, are you familiar with the ancient term "kom-pro-mize"? You know where neither party gets exactly what they want, but with a few concessions they get an OK result?