Among Us
The Christmas Season is over, the New Year has yet to begin, and we found ourselves in that funny week in between holidays when the world simply seems to wait. On the internet, maybe it would be best to think of this as list season: a period of reflection, where we think about the things we loved and hated in a year with plenty of both. In that vein, Valve just released a list of Steam’s top selling games for 2020. So let’s take a look: these are the top 10 selling games on Steam by gross revenue, so it also includes free-to-play titles. Presented in the order they appear on this page, which does not indicate any sort of ranking:
- DOTA 2
- Destiny 2
- Monster Hunter: World
- Among US
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
- DOOM Eternal
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- GTA V
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Cyberpunk 2077
As promised by the headline, these games appear to shuffle out into three categories.
2+ Year-old Live Service Games: The most crowded category on the list by far. These are older games that just won’t quite, and includes DOTA 2, Monster Hunter World, CS:GO and Rainbow Six Siege. I’m also going to argue that Red Dead Redemption 2 and Destiny 2 belong in this category as well, but it gets a little murkier because while they are older, they didn’t appear on Steam until more recently. Regardless, this category is the bulwark of the gaming industry at this point, and it proves that by far the best way to have a successful game in 2020 is to...already have a successful game. The king stay the king, to quote The Wire.
Indie Viral Sensations: This includes Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout and Among Us, two breakout games of 2020 from comparatively small studios. Both got huge on the backs of streamers and influencers, appealing to a distinctly sillier sensibility than the rest of these relatively grim entries. Both are also live service titles, and I’d expect to see them on the list again next year.
Ultra-hyped, PC-focused AAA: There was a time when this would be the hands-down most popular category, but that time has long since passed. These games are DOOM: Eternal and Cyberpunk 2077, two heavily hyped AAA games from major studios with a distinct PC focus. I’d be remiss to mention that Cyberpunk 2077 did this while being a buggy, broken mess on low-end PCs and on console, but it still sold huge on the backs of pre-orders.
So that’s what this list tells us: aside from viral sensations and massive productions, the biggest games are the tried-and-true live service titles that we’re likely to see again next year. We’ll see some shuffling, but I would predict that we’ll see at least half of these titles on the list again next year.
