As the end of 2024 approaches, Steam is celebrating another successful year with the year's "Best of Steam" list, showcasing the platform's most popular and profitable games - and while many of the usual suspects are present, the list also contains some surprising entries.
As has been an annual tradition since 2017, Steam has released its Best of 2024 listShowcasing the top-performing releases of 2024 across multiple categories - Top Sellers, New Releases, Most Played, Steam Deck, Controller, and VR. Games in each category are organized into multiple tiers, from Platinum at the top to Bronze at the bottom, and randomly ordered within each tier. Of the games included, there are, as expected, several live service games in the works, such as Counterattack 2, Dota 2, Destiny 2and Helldivers 2but the list also displays a surprising varietyeven at the highest levels.
The Best of Steam Highlights of 2024
Some unexpected games have a strong presence in Steam's Best of 2024
Along with live service titles, which by their nature players can reasonably be expected to dominate in terms of profit and player population, Games without live service also had a notably strong showingwith Dark Myth: Wukong, Elden Ringand Baldur's Gate 3 all reaching high positions in the Best Sellers, New Releases and Most Played categories. These three titles are also joined by several other games with a little less success, such as Dragon's Dogma II, Valley of the Starsand lordly gentlemen.
Equally notable are the games that reached high places on the list despite only being released later in the year. Marvel Rivals and Path of Exile IIfor example, they were both released on December 6th, but despite being available for less than a month, they reached the Platinum and Gold levels for New Releases, respectively. Special mention should also go to Wild Monster Hunterwhich is Bronze in the Best Sellers category, and the only game on the list that cannot be played in one way or another, having only made the list through pre-orders.
Steam's best of 2024 has games from (almost) every genre
Even relatively niche genres appeared in Steam's Best Of 2024
Notably, There are also a variety of genres represented in Steam's Best of 2024with even some relatively niche genres appearing. For fighting games, Street Fighter 6 is one of the best-selling Bronze and Tekken 8 is Silver and Gold for Best Sellers and New Releases, respectively. The previously mentioned lordly gentlemen is an RTS game, a genre that is also represented by Sins of a Solar Empire II. Although not a niche, turn-based RPGs are also very well represented, with ReFantazio Metaphor, Dragon Quest III, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth it is clear, Baldur's Gate 3 all making the list.
It's important to note that a game's gross profit and popularity aren't the only way to gauge its value - my two favorite games of 2024, for example, are Nine suns and Tactical Breach Assistantsnone of which are present on the list. What SteamMicrosoft's Best of 2024 list shows, however, that there is still value in a variety of game genres and models, and that while some types of games are more represented than others, more niche titles can still find success.
Source: Steam