Valve announces most popular Steam games of 2022
Valve has revealed which games on Steam have brought in the most sales this year and which have been played the most on the Steam Deck. To somewhat protect the privacy of the creators, the games are bracketed and amounts are not disclosed.
Valve uses several categories here. These include the games that generated the most sales in the year, games released this year ranked by revenue in the first two weeks, games released this year’s Early Access ranked by revenue, the most popular VR games by revenue and the most popular games on the Steam Deck by player count. The sorting within the brackets is arbitrary and Valve recommends that the caveats good to read. This overview is different from Steam Replay, which is a summary of the most played games from the past year on an individual level.
The games that generated the most revenue in 2022 were not just games with a relatively high price. They are certainly among them: Elden Ring, Modern Warfare II and Monster Hunter Rise all have a spot in the Platinum bracket. It is also filled with free titles such as PUBG, Apex Legends, CS:GO, Lost Ark and Dota 2. In the Gold bracket we find popular titles such as Cyberpunk 2077, GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War, but also the rts game Total War: Warhammer III. Further on, relatively smaller and older indie games can also be seen such as Project Zomboid, RimWorld, Terraria and Risk of Rain 2. In total, Valve has listed 100 games in this list.
Games released this year that generated the most sales in their first two weeks are largely also games that topped the previous list: Dying Light 2, Monster Hunter, Elden Ring, Modern Warfare II, Total War: Warhammer III, Lost Ark and Yu -Gi-Oh! Master Duel are in both lists in the Platinum bracket. Furthermore, for example, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, FIFA 23 and Stray can be found here.
On the Steam Deck, many triple-A games had the most daily active players; games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Spider-Man Remastered, The Witcher 3 and Elden Ring. Those are also games with hefty system requirements. Yet there are also ‘more modest’ games such as Cult of the Lamb, Hades and Vampire Survivors.
In terms of sales of VR games, the list is also partly led by well-known players: Superhot, Half-Life: Alyx, Skyrim VR and Beat Saber are present, but also games such as After The Fall, Boneworks and VTOL VR.
The games that left Early Access this year and achieved the highest sales this year include Grounded, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, Vampire Survivors, Rogue Legacy 2, and Teardown. Here are also often lesser-known titles on the list.
Finally, Valve announces a sixth category: the most played games of the year based on the highest number of simultaneous players in the year. Well-known games mentioned above are also featured there, but also titles such as Goose Goose Duck, a free-to-play competitor of Among Us.