Gaming | August 21, 2023
In recent days, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been making headlines due to the extensive content offered by Larian’s new masterpiece and its impact among PC players, making it one of the titles with the most simultaneous players on Steam.
Taking advantage of the occasion, let’s review the top 10 most played titles in the history of Valve’s digital platform, where you might come across a few surprises and a number 1 that, as of today, seems unbeatable.
Among the top 10 titles with the most simultaneous players on Steam, one of the most distinctive is Goose Goose Duck, a social deduction game where players control a goose to perform various missions and annoy others. Although the title initially went somewhat unnoticed, on January 12 of this year, it reached its player peak thanks to its success on Twitch.
Larian has finally released the final version of Baldur’s Gate 3, the continuation of one of the most iconic role-playing sagas that, after three years in Steam’s Early Access platform, was officially released and achieved resounding success among players eager to delve into Faerûn, reaching its peak of 814,666 simultaneous players on August 6, securing a spot in this top 10.
The success of a title set in the Harry Potter universe was quite predictable, and it didn’t surprise many when Hogwarts Legacy quickly became one of the most notable titles in Valve’s platform history, reaching its peak player count on February 12, 2023, just two days after its launch.
Time for MMOs on this list with New World, Amazon Games’ title that garnered significant interest during its beta phases, resulting in an incredible initial boom of players. It came close to a million simultaneous users attracted to a title somewhat different from traditional MMORPGs, although the lack of content led to a notable decrease in player numbers a few months after its release.
From Software has earned a great reputation among players with the Souls series, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. Therefore, it was not surprising that their largest work to date, Elden Ring, was one of the most anticipated titles of 2022. On March 5 of last year, it reached its peak of 953,426 players, just shy of the top 5, which it might achieve in the future if a DLC or expansion is released.
The anticipation that CD Projekt RED generated with Cyberpunk 2077 was rewarded with 1,054,388 players on the same day the title was released on our computers. The launch, as many will recall, was plagued with bugs, but that didn’t prevent many players from being interested in this special game that will soon release its first and only expansion, Phantom Liberty.
DOTA 2 is one of those timeless games that not only gathered a large player base on Steam but remains one of the most played titles day by day, even after a decade of existence. For many, it’s the best free-to-play MOBA on the market, and it reached its peak player count in 2015 during the Festival of the New Bloom to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Smilegate RPG’s massive action role-playing game had been a massive success in Asia for a long time, catching the interest of Amazon Games. On February 11, 2022, it was released in the West through Steam, achieving unprecedented success and surpassing Amazon’s previously mentioned title, New World. The day after its release, Lost Ark reached its peak player count with 1,325,305 people trying out this free-to-play experience.
Another timeless game on this list is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the latest installment in Valve’s competitive shooter franchise. This summer, it will be succeeded by Counter-Strike 2, shifting the spotlight away from CS:GO. This title started as a paid game but transitioned to free-to-play in 2018. Since its launch and especially after adopting the free-to-play model, this shooter title has continued to grow. In fact, its record for simultaneous players was set this year, precisely on May 1. This record may be surpassed after CS2’s release.
Battle royales existed before PUBG: Battlegrounds, but Krafton’s title was the one that sowed the seed that germinated into this popular genre, now embraced by many. The game, known for its realistic mechanics within the genre, was launched on December 21, 2017, and was a resounding success, achieving a peak of over 3 million players, maintaining the record for the most simultaneous players on Steam for 6 years.
