The “Best Of” list for 2018 has been announced by Valve, showcasing the best-performing titles on Steam based on user interaction and gross income. The games fall into many categories: best-selling new releases, top sellers, highest-grossing early access games, most played with a controller, most played on PC, most played on Steam Deck, and best-selling VR titles. Each category’s top 12 games are awarded Platinum status, with the remaining titles being sorted into Gold, Silver, and Bronze categories in decreasing order.
This entertaining list of the titles that Steam users have played the most this year serves as a reminder that even while certain games seem to be fading or outdated (like, say, Destiny 2), a lot of people are still playing them. Although Valve does not score these titles, we have listed the Platinum-ranked games in each category alphabetically; you can check the full list here.
Best-Selling Items with the greatest gross income in 2023
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Lost Ark
- Apex Legends
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Call of Duty (MW III, Warzone, MW II)
- Counter-Strike 2
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Destiny 2
- Dota 2
- PUBG: Battlegrounds
- Sons of the Forest
- Starfield
VR: The maximum amount of money made
- Beat Saber
- Blade & Sorcery
- Bonelab
- Boneworks
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
- Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2
- Ghosts of Tabor
- Gorilla Tag
- Half-Life: Alyx
- Into the Radius VR
- Pavlov
- VTOL VR
Peak concurrent player counts over 40,000 indicate which game is most played
- Apex Legends
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Counter-Strike 2
- Destiny 2
- Dota 2
- Goose Goose Duck
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Lost Ark
- PUBG: Battlegrounds
- Sons of the Forest
- Starfield
Controller: Most games are played on a gamepad.
- Apex Legends
- Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
- Call of Duty (MW III, Warzone, MW II)
- EA Sports FC 24
- Elden Ring
- FIFA 23
- Hogwarts Legacy
- NBA 2K23
- Resident Evil 4 (remake)
- Rocket League
- Starfield
- Street Fighter 6
New Releases: During the first two weeks after release, the majority of money is generated
- Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Cities: Skylines II
- EA Sports FC 24
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Payday 3
- Remnant II
- Resident Evil 4 (remake)
- Sons of the Forest
- Starfield
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- Street Fighter 6
Early Access: Most amount of money made both before and after this year’s 1.0 launch)
- Against the Storm
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Dave the Diver
- Demonologist
- Disney Dreamlight Valley
- Everspace 2
- Farlight 84
- Marvel Snap
- My Time at Sandrock
- Ready or Not
- Sun Haven
- Wartales
Steam Deck: Top games on the device this year based on daily active player numbers)
- Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Dave the Diver
- Elden Ring
- Half-Life
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Resident Evil 4 (remake)
- Starfield
- Vampire Survivors
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Notable 2023 releases like Risk of Rain Returns, Dredge, and Diablo 4 are just outside of the top 12 Steam Deck games. Visit Valve’s Best of 2023 page on Steam for more 2023 Steam statistics, such as the most popular VR games on Steam and the games that users most frequently played with a controller. Instead of providing precise sales numbers or numerical rankings, Valve publishes a list of the top 100 Steam titles in a variety of categories, dividing each list into many tiers according to play performance or sales.