"$300 worth of games for $12" is technically true and mostly meaningless. Bundle pricing is built around a headline number that only makes sense if you'd have paid full price for every single game in it — and almost nobody would.
How the economics actually work
Bundle sites like Humble Bundle and Fanatical negotiate a flat rate with publishers for a set of games, then sell them together for far less than the sum of their individual prices. The publishers still profit (bundles push a lot of volume, and often route a cut to charity on Humble specifically), and the bundle site keeps a margin. Everyone wins — except your math is still your own problem to do.
The "total value" figure quoted on the bundle page is the sum of every game's full list price, including titles you'll never install. Treat it as marketing copy, not a savings estimate.
The only question that actually matters
Ignore the total value number entirely and ask one thing: how many games in this bundle would I have bought anyway, and what would they have cost me separately?
Pull up the price history for the one or two games you actually want. If their combined historic-low price on Steam or GOG is close to what the whole bundle costs, the bundle is a good deal — the rest of the games are a free bonus, not the reason to buy. If those one or two games rarely go on sale and the bundle price undercuts their usual low, that's an even better sign.
What to watch for
Tiered pricing games. Many bundles use a "pay more, unlock more" structure. Check exactly which games sit in your tier — the flashiest title is often locked behind the highest tier, not included by default.
Padding with shovelware. A bundle listing 15 games is more impressive than one listing 4, so some bundles pad their count with low-effort or abandoned titles nobody would buy individually. This doesn't make the bundle bad if the one or two games you want justify the price — just don't let the count influence your decision.
Keys vs direct activation. Most bundle keys activate the same as a normal Steam or GOG key. A small number of promotions distribute keys through third-party resellers instead — worth a quick check if the bundle price seems unusually aggressive; see our guide to key-site safety for what to look for.
The practical rule
A bundle is worth buying when the games you actually want would cost roughly the same or more bought individually at their best historic price. Everything else in the bundle is a bonus, not a reason. If you're only interested in one game and it's not near its historic low elsewhere, buying it directly is usually the better move — check all current offers before assuming the bundle is the cheaper path.