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Steam’s Best of 2023 Reveals Its Highest Selling and Most Played Games of the Past Year

Steam’s Best of 2023 Reveals Its Highest-Selling and Most-Played Games of the Past Year

Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, and Starfield are among the best-selling narrative games of the year.

Written by Rahul Chettiyar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 1 January 2024 14:19 IST

Steam’s Best of 2023 Reveals Its Highest-Selling and Most-Played Games of the Past Year

Photo Credit: Larian Studios

Baldur's Gate 3 was crowned Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2023

Highlights

Baldur’s Gate 3 peaked at over 800,000 concurrent players in 2023
Both new and old releases populate the top-selling games on Steam
Steam’s annual Winter Sale is live right now

Valve has unveiled its annual ‘Best of 2023' list on Steam, revealing which titles dominated sales on PC. The titles haven't been numerically ranked, but have been grouped into tiers — Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze — based on data collected from January 1 through December 15, 2023. The Top 12 category is populated by both free-to-play multiplayer games and the biggest launches, with the award-winning Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, Cyberpunk 2077, and Hogwarts Legacy emerging as the best-selling titles. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which was disliked by both fans and critics alike, also made it to higher echelons, thanks to a dedicated fanbase wanting to experience its multiplayer segment.

The usual suspects like Counter-Strike 2, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Apex Legends, Dota 2, and Destiny 2 also made it to the Platinum rank — the last of them is getting a new expansion, ‘The Final Shape,' in June, this year. Meanwhile, the Gold tier contains some absolute bangers like the Resident Evil 4 remake, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Elden Ring, for which the last-reported sales number was 20 million copies across all platforms. Its popularity was highly instrumental in plunking Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, a lesser-known FromSoftware franchise, among the top 24 best-selling games on the platform. Even FIFA 23 from last year made the cut, which shouldn't be surprising considering its follow-up EA Sports FC 24 launched mid-year.

In addition to an overall Top-Sellers field, Steam has additional sections for New Releases by gross revenue, Most Played, Early Access purchases, and more. Multiplatform games that were received poorly seem to be the centre of attention among the latest releases, with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Payday 3 emerging on top, with the latter being criticised for lack of content. As you'd expect, multiplayer games held the highest player count (above 300,000 minimum), though some single-player affairs like Goose Goose Duck and Hogwarts Legacy charted alongside Baldur's Gate 3, which at one point, peaked at over 800,000 concurrent players on Steam. Developer Larian Studios only anticipated 100,000, given the game had been out for nearly three years in early access. At the time of writing, over 176,000 concurrent players are logged into the expansive RPG, which is placed fourth among the most-played games on the platform.

2023 was also a great year for studios to test out their games in early access and gain feedback on them. The ocean exploration and fishing game from Mintrocket, Dave the Diver, was among the favourites, even turning out to be one of the most played games on the Steam Deck. While it's only natural to expect less graphically intensive games like Vampire Survivor and Half-Life on there, somehow Starfield made it to the top despite its lack of optimisation causing heavy stutters in crowded areas like New Atlantis and the Wild West-themed Akila. Beat Saber and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR emerged among the favourites in virtual reality gaming, along with Half-Life: Alyx, pitting you in a vicious fight against the alien Combines.

Currently, Steam also has its annual Winter Sale going on, bringing steep discounts on new and returning games. It runs until January 5 at 10:30pm IST.

What are the most exciting titles that gamers can look forward to in 2023? We discuss some of our favourites on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Baldur's Gate III

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Deeply thought-out writing
Highly reactive world
In-depth character customisation
Charming characters; stellar voice acting
Combat that rewards creativity
Flexible navigation around the map
Stunning cinematics
No microtransactions or always-online requirement

Bad
Performance issues in Act 3

Read detailed Larian Studios Baldur's Gate III review

Genre RPG

Platform PlayStation 5 (PS5), PC: Windows, PC: macOS

Modes Single-player, Multiplayer

Series Baldur's Gate

PEGI Rating 18+

More Larian Studios Games

Starfield

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Massive scale
Immersive side stories
Strong role-playing foundation
Great art design
Satisfying dogfights

Bad
Extremely slow start
Unoriginal main story
Robotic animations and voice acting
Fast travel-based space exploration
Boring on-foot planet exploration
Horrible surface map

Read detailed Bethesda Starfield review

Genre RPG

Platform Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Single-player

PEGI Rating 18+

More Bethesda Games

Cyberpunk 2077

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Good voice acting
Lots to do in Night City
Multiple ways to play
Three lifepaths, multiple endings

Bad
Terrible graphics
Low frame rate that impacts gameplay
Filled with bugs, frequent crashes
Too many loading screens
Enemies are bullet sponges
No cover system
Repetitive NPCs
Too much loot

Read detailed CD Projekt Cyberpunk 2077 review

Genre Action-Adventure

Platform PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Single-player

PEGI Rating 18+

More CD Projekt Games

Hogwarts Legacy

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Excellent combat
Engaging story
Likeable cast of characters
Detailed world design

Bad
Tries to stuff in a lot
Lack of a companion system
Tedious inventory management

Read detailed Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Hogwarts Legacy review

Genre RPG

Platform Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Single-player

Series Wizarding World

PEGI Rating 12+

More Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Games

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Fantastic gunplay
Low system requirements
Variety of multiplayer modes
Great character moments
Expansive arsenal
Rewarding multiplayer progression

Bad
Constant game crashes
Boring first half of the campaign
No ranked in multiplayer
Lobbies reset after every match
SBMM not properly optimised
Difficult to differentiate enemies

Read detailed Activision Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II review

Genre Shooter

Platform PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Single-player, Multiplayer

Series Call of Duty

PEGI Rating 18+

More Activision Games

Destiny 2

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Fantastic gunplay
Amazing music
Slick visuals

Bad
Bugs
Pay-to-win microtransactions

Read detailed Bungie Destiny 2 review

Genre MMO

Platform PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Multiplayer

Series Destiny

PEGI Rating 12+

More Bungie Games

Counter-Strike 2

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Genre Shooter

Platform PC: Windows

Modes Single-player, Multiplayer

More Valve Games

PUBG: Battlegrounds

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Fantastic concept
Satisfying gunplay

Bad
Not enough modes
Poor frame rate
Technical issues

Read detailed Krafton PUBG: Battlegrounds review

Genre Shooter

Platform Android, PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, iOS, PC: Windows

Modes Multiplayer

Series PUBG

PEGI Rating 16+

More Krafton Games

Apex Legends

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Ping System works well
Streamlined inventory management
Great gunplay

Bad
Map lacks variety
Characters are lacklustre
Doesn't take advantage of the Titanfall universe

Read detailed Electronic Arts Apex Legends review

Genre Shooter

Platform Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, iOS, PC: Windows

Modes Multiplayer

Series Titanfall

PEGI Rating 16+

More Electronic Arts Games

Dota 2

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Genre MOBA

Platform PC: Windows, PC: macOS, PC: Linux

Modes Multiplayer

Series Dota

PEGI Rating 12+

More Valve Games

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