Did you load up your PC games library this year? You probably picked up one of the titles on Valve’s Best of 2021 lists.
The company broke down the Top Sellers, Top New Releases, Most Played Games, Top Early Access Graduates, Top Selling VR Games, and Top Controller Games on Steam this year.
“Since we don’t divulge revenue specifics for the games on these lists, we sort them into categories to give an idea of how they stack up,” Valve says. “The games on the Most Played lists are organized by peak concurrent player count and grouped into thresholds based on the number of players.” Games also receive Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze ratings.
Among new releases, May, September, and November were hotter months, with 13 of the top 25 best-selling new games launching then. But every month had at least one game make the top 25, determined by the revenue they generated during their first two weeks on Steam.
Platinum new releases included: Outriders, Naraka Bladepoint, New World, Farming Simulator 22, Age of Empires IV, Forza Horizon 5, Resident Evil Village, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Back 4 Blood, Valheim, Halo Infinite, and Battlefield 2042.
When looking at the overall Top Sellers list, only a few new releases kept up with older games that had all year to rake in revenue—Battlefield 2042, New World, Naraka Bladepoint, and Valheim. Older titles like Grand Theft Auto V and PUBG: Battlegrounds continue to prove their staying power. A number of other free-to-play games also demonstrated the effectiveness of the microtransaction model, as Apex Legends, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Destiny 2 went Platinum for their revenue despite the base games being free.
Unsurprisingly, many of the top-selling games for the year also saw some of the highest player counts. Ten games broke the 200,000 concurrent player threshold, and all of them also hit Platinum on one of the two best seller lists. The notable exceptions are Cyberpunk 2077 and Rust, which only managed Silver and Gold status, respectively, on the Top Sellers list.
Sci-fi and fantasy games proved popular among VR experiences in Steam. Beat Saber; Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades; and VR Kanojo were among those that went Platinum.
For the full top 100 game rankings on each list, see them on Steam here. And if you want to add to your library, Steam’s Winter Sale runs through Jan. 5.
