Valve has released its charts of the best-selling and most played games on Steam in 2018, and while new releases like Monster Hunter: World and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has breakout years it was games with regular content drops that seem to be doing most well.
Though Valve doesn’t disclose specific sales or revenue numbers in its charts, it does stratify games into distinct tiers, giving us a glimpse into how groups of games did relative to each other.
First up: Best-sellers. While 2018 titles like Monster Hunter: World, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Far Cry 5 made the platinum tier of titles who grossed the most revenue (allowing free-to-play titles with microtransactions to compete), nine of the twelve titles in that tier were games actually released before this year, but received regular or major content updates this year. The twelve best-selling titles are:
- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Dota 2
Grand Theft Auto V
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Warframe
Rocket League
Rainbow Six Siege
The Elder Scrolls Online
Far Cry 5
Civilization VI
Monster Hunter: World
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Older titles were also popular as you go down the tiers, as games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Dead By Daylight, and more dominate the gold tier. The silver tier has more new titles, however, as Dragon Ball FighterZ, The Forest, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and a few other new titles make a name for themselves there.
When it comes to the most played games, we get a little more specific information. The titles in the highest tier managed to exceed over 100,000 simultaneous players on Steam. Only 10 titles accomplished the feat. They are:
- Monster Hunter: World
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Path of Exile
Team Fortress 2
Dota 2
Grand Theft Auto
Rainbow Six Siege
Realm Royale
Playerunknowon’s Battlegrounds
Warframe
Several titles, like Valve’s own Artifact, Warhammer: Vermintide II, Kingdom Come Deliverance, and early access game The Scroll of Taiwu all exceeding 50,000 players.
You can also see a breakdown of the best-selling games stratified by month, as well as the most popular games that left early access this year, and the best-selling VR games.
You can read Valve’s full post on the charts here.
Although they don’t represent the entire PC market and leave out the console market entirely, these charts further point towards what many of us had suspected: Game developers are chasing the dream of having popular titles players can spend hundreds of hours with and spend money on throughout the year because these titles sell incredibly well, even as new games come and go.
Source: Game Informer Rainbow Six Siege, Monster Hunter: World, GTA V Headline Steam's Best-Selling, Most Played Games Of 2018