Valve revealed the 100 best-selling Steam games of 2016.
The list was published shortly after the inaugural Steam Awards and the gaming marketplace's Winter Sale. It's divided into four categories: platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. Valve didn't technically quantify the most popular titles of the year; instead, it collected the games with the highest revenues.
The platinum category was dominated by established games like Grand Theft Auto V, CS: GO, and Dota 2. Some more surprising hits include Dark Souls III, Civilization VI, and Rocket League. This category showed that people like to buy what they know--few of the games were even released in 2016.
The gold category is a little more diverse. Indie darling Stardew Valley is there, as are the Doom reboot and Call of Duty: Black Ops III. The free-to-play Warframe is also included in this category. Here again the list comprises mostly new entries to established franchises or titles released before 2016.
Silver and bronze have more variety. They've got a smattering of indie hits like Darkest Dungeon, Firewatch, and Undertale; older titles like Left 4 Dead 2, Dishonored, and Far Cry 4; and even some recent releases like Watch Dogs 2, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and Dishonored 2.
The full list, complete with links to each game, can be found on the Steam website. It will be interesting to see if history repeats itself for 2017. Will the games of 2016 get more attention, or will older titles continue to be purchased as more people get into PC gaming? Time--and hopefully Valve--will tell.
