Whether it’s the emergence of the battle royale genre or blockbuster multiplayer survival games, PC games often serve as frontiers for the latest trends and innovations in the gaming world, often causing massive player fascination.
But of all the PC games that have ever hit the Steam charts, few have enjoyed the sheer popularity of topping Steam’s most-played charts. Here are the 15 most-played Steam games of all time, based on the highest concurrent players ever for games on the Valve platform.
15. Fallout 4
Concurrent players record: 472,962
As a long-awaited sequel from a studio that recently released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, expectations for Fallout 4 at launch were undeniable. In fact, within days of his debut, he soared to the top of Steam’s player charts, setting a record that continues to this day in the top 15 of all time.
With an infinite number of settlements that need your help, it’s no wonder the game’s player base has stood the test of time.
14. Capcom Arcade Stadium
Concurrent players record: 472,791
Interestingly, Capcom Arcade Stadium shot to the top of the Steam charts, becoming at one point the third most-played game (even ahead of Apex Legends and PUBG) long after its initial release. why? answer, According to Pavel Jandik According to the Steam metrics expert, bots are flooding the game to farm Steam trading cards and sit idle in the game.
Steam trading cards are digital collectibles that can be exchanged for monetary value on Valve’s platform, and having bots pretend to play the game appears to be one way to obtain cards to sell. The fact that Capcom Arcade Stadium is free to download makes it a prime target for this kind of practical jokes.
Falsely enhanced by the presence of fake players, this may not count, but the story is just too good to skip. We’re counting it – you’re welcome, Capcom.
13. Terraria
Concurrent players record: 489,886
As one of the best-selling games of all time (approximately 45 million units sold) According to some calculations), it’s no surprise that Terraria makes the list of the most-played Steam games. Pixelated survival and building RPGs, sometimes compared to the likes of Minecraft, are surprisingly addictive and great to play with friends. Plus, it’s affordable, which makes the barrier to entry pretty low for those interested. try it. At its peak, he had nearly 500,000 concurrent players, so it’s clear that many of the buyers were hooked.
12. Call of Duty: Warzone
Concurrent players record: 491,670
Call of Duty games have always been more popular on consoles than on Steam (which seems to favor the likes of Counter-Strike), but with the advent of the battle royale genre enjoying immense popularity on the PC platform, Warzone easily cuts. As Last Man Standing games enter a new level of maturity and AAA iterations enter, Warzone has become a staple at the top of Steam’s player charts alongside other battle royale games such as his Apex Legends. rice field.
Interestingly, Warzone is the only Call of Duty game to make it onto this list, despite the series becoming wildly successful and popular with each year’s release.
11. Walheim
Concurrent players record: 502,387
Survival games have been trending really well on Steam, and one of the recent examples to skyrocket on the Steam charts is Iron Gate’s Nordic-inspired challenging game, Valheim. With overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam and tons of hype in the weeks and months following its initial release, at the height of its popularity, almost all of your Steam friends logged in. was often seen.
10. Apex Legends
Concurrent players record: 624,473
Apex Legends is still one of the most popular battle royale games of all time, so it’s no wonder it’s in the top 10 most-played Steam games of all time. Obviously, this game is an incredibly polished shooter from the same studio that made Titanfall 2 and others, but it’s also important to remember that this is and always will be a free-to-play game. is. That makes it incredibly accessible for those who want to jump in. Even now, Apex Legends still attracts hundreds of thousands of players every day, so it could stay in the top 10 for a while.
9. Goose Goose Duck
Concurrent players record: 702,845
Surprisingly, only one social reasoning game makes it onto this list, and it’s not Among Us. In its place is Gaggle Studios’ Goose Goose Duck. You and your fellow geese will try to identify your fellow duck intruders before they are knocked down.
What made the game so popular? Pure star power from one of the early players. After streaming his K-pop star Kim Taehyung, better known as his V in BTS, playing the game, the game exploded on his Steam and quickly became an indie for his developer. server overwhelmed. Even today, its player base is solid, with tens of thousands logging in every day, but we have to wonder if it could have reached such heights without a little boost from BTS.
8. Hogwarts Legacy
Concurrent players record: 879,308
It’s one of the most popular fictional worlds ever created, so you might expect a game set in a world of sorcery and magic to make the list. But that’s right. Hailed as the first truly great Harry Potter game, Hogwarts Legacy broke sales and concurrent player records within days of its debut on Steam.
Hogwarts Legacy is also the newest game on this list, having been released just a few months earlier this year. It’s also worth noting that Hogwarts Legacy is his one of three games on this list that doesn’t feature any form of multiplayer. So the result is even more impressive.
7. New World
Concurrent players record: 953,426
The first of the two MMORPGs on the list, New World was the first blockbuster from Amazon Games, the online shopping network’s ambition to enter the gaming industry. In this MMO, the player puts himself in the shoes of an explorer sent to colonize a fictional New World in the mid-17th century, and must scavenge and craft raw materials to settle the undiscovered lands. had.
A strong initial release saw an astronomical climb to the top of the Steam charts, followed by a dramatic 90% drop just a few months later, but still has a sizable fan base to this day doing.
6. Elden Ring
Concurrent players record: 953,426
Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and world-built by George R.R. Martin, FromSoftware’s games are the most search engine optimized I can imagine, hence the originator of the genre. It can only be expected that the latest Souls-like masterpiece by will dominate the lives of gamers around the world. As long as it was.
With nearly 1 million concurrent players at one point, Elden Ring will be named IGN’s 2022 Game of the Year among many other accolades.
5. Cyberpunk 2077
Concurrent players record: 1,054,388
Despite its troubled launch on consoles, CD Projekt RED’s single-player sci-fi RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, was hugely popular on the PC platform, with over one million players online simultaneously at its peak. was As the successor to the studio that created the legendary The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the hype behind Cyberpunk certainly helped propel it to the top of the Steam charts. To this day, it is the most played Steam game without any kind of multiplayer functionality.
The game’s upcoming DLC, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, is scheduled for release in September 2023.
4. Dota 2
Concurrent players record: 1,295,114
The only multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) in the top 15 most played games on Steam is Dota 2, one of the greatest games in the genre. Created by none other than Valve, Dota 2 has stood the test of time with regular events. We have 500,000 players every day. With well over 1.25 million players at its all-time high, it earned him the coveted #4 spot on Steam’s most-played chart.
3. Lost Ark
Concurrent players record: 1,325,305
The third most-played Steam game of all time is also on the list as the most-played MMORPG. Lost Ark is an action role-playing game that was a success in South Korea upon its regional debut from developer Smilegate, and has since been released internationally, making him one of the most popular MMOs on the market.
Although the number of daily players has decreased compared to its heyday, it attracted the interest of over 1 million players at the same time during its peak. That’s the massive appearance of giant dragons and oversized swords.
2. Counter-Strike: Global Offense
Concurrent players record: 1,818,773
Few games in Steam’s history have had as much impact on the platform as Counter-Strike. In fact, Steam might not be the industry-leading platform it is today without the continued success of its series, which still attracts over one million concurrent players almost every day. In the latest installment in the series, Global Offensive, he had nearly 2 million concurrent players at his peak, which miraculously isn’t much higher than normal concurrent player counts. It’s hard to imagine how much of an impact the recently announced Counter-Strike 2 will have when it finally becomes available.
1. PUBG: Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds
Concurrent players record: 3,257,248
Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, also known as PUBG, is the progenitor of one of the most popular genres in the world these days, Battle Royale. Since then, it has spawned numerous refinements with incredible success (two of which are his on this list), but the attention the original authentic garnered quickly waned. It seems unlikely.
With over 3.5 million concurrent players, PUBG is almost double the next most-played Steam game, far ahead of many other giants on this list, and arguably the most-played of all time. It’s a Steam game.
Travis Northup is a San Francisco-based writer for IGN. He’s been writing about games for over a decade and enjoys everything from strategy games and platformers to shooters and open world RPGs.
