2022 was another big year for Steam, with Valve’s platform breaking concurrent user records, but what were all those folks actually playing? Sure, breakout Steam hits like Vampire Survivors grabbed headlines, and stuff like DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike are always popular, but what’s the full picture look like?
Well, Valve has released their 2022 list of Steam’s best sellers (which actually measures which games produced the most gross revenue, rather than unit sales). Valve doesn’t provide an exact ranking, instead sorting them into pools – Platinum for the #1 through #12, Gold for #13 to #24, and Silver for #25 to #50. They’re listed here in alphabetical order.
Platinum
- Apex Legends
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Destiny 2
- DOTA 2
- Dying Light 2 Stay Human
- Elden Ring
- Lost Ark
- Monster Hunter Rise
- Naraka: Bladepoint
- PUBG Battlegrounds
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
Gold
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Dead by Daylight
- FIFA 23
- Forza Horizon 5
- God of War
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Ready or Not
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Total War: Warhammer III
- War Thunder
- Warframe
Silver
- Black Desert
- Cities: Skylines
- Civilization VI
- Cult of the Lamb
- FIFA 22
- Final Fantasy XIV
- Hunt: Showdown
- It Takes Two
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- NBA 2K22
- Phasmophobia
- Project Zomboid
- Raft
- Rimworld
- Rust
- Sea of Thieves
- Spider-Man Remastered
- Stellaris
- Stray
- Team Fortress 2
- The Elder Scrolls Online
- The Forest
- The Sims 4
- V Rising
- Warhammer 40K: Darktide
Some interesting results! Stuff like Elden Ring and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II aren’t a huge shock, but Dying Light 2, Monster Hunter Rise, and Lost Ark did better than I thought. Also, I guess everyone still loves Yi-Gi-Oh! Go figure. Valve also listed the most-played Steam games, grouped by whether they surpassed certain peak player milestones. While these largely mirror the highest-grossing games, there are some key differences.
Over 240K Peak Players
- Apex Legends
- Ark: Survival Evolved
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Destiny 2
- DOTA 2
- Dying Light 2 Stay Human
- Elden Ring
- Goose Goose Duck
- Lost Ark
- PUBG Battlegrounds
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
Over 130K Peak Players
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Monster Hunter Rise
- MultiVersus
- Naraka: Bladepoint
- New World
- Path of Exile
- Rust
- Team Fortress 2
- Total War: Warhammer III
- V Rising
Over 75K Peak Players
- Civilization VI
- Dead by Daylight
- Dead Hunger
- FIFA 22
- FIFA 23
- Football Manager 2022
- Football Manager 2023
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Need for Speed Heat
- Raft
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Terraria
- The Forest
- The Sims 4
- The Witcher 3
- Unturned
- Valheim
- Vampire Survivors
- War Thunder
- Warframe
- Warhammer 40K: Darktide
- Warhammer: Vermintide 2
What do you think? Surprised by this year’s Steam hits? Which games listed above did you pick up?
About the author: Professional writer of trivial things. Nathan has been covering games, entertainment, and online culture for over a decade with bylines at IGN, GameSpy, Cracked, Uproxx, ComicBook, and more. Joined Wccftech gaming team in 2017, and has written hundreds of game reviews and thousands of news stories since.
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