Valve Reveals 100 Best-Selling Steam Games Of 2016

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.

Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

  • uglyduckling81
    Kind of sad to see all the biggest earners are sequels.
    It's just going to reinforce remakes instead of fresh ideas even more.
    I guess we are all just too predictable and like our safe spots rather than trying new things.
    Reply
  • Achoo22
    I guess we are all just too predictable and like our safe spots rather than trying new things.

    The best games that Steam offers right now are sequels. It's as simple as that.
    Reply
  • yronnen
    It also looks like games sales are not like movies (which is a common perception), e.g. it's not all about the first few weeks or the pre-orders. A game like Fallout4 was released in early November 2015, yet it is still platinum.
    Reply
  • BulkZerker
    Maybe if games were released in a finished state... I know for sure myself I'm not going to buy many new releases when stuff like what happened with dishonor ed 2 is the norn
    Reply
  • uglyduckling81
    19104967 said:
    Maybe if games were released in a finished state... I know for sure myself I'm not going to buy many new releases when stuff like what happened with dishonor ed 2 is the norn

    Just picked up Batman: Arkham Knight complete edition for $10 during winter sale.
    Such a good game.
    Definitely worth waiting to play this one since all the launch issues are fixed.
    Get solid 90FPS (limited to 90 in setting for some reason) on max setting on my 970.
    Kind of sad we have to wait a year for a game to finished after release but there are so many games released all the time it's not that hard to wait it out.
    Reply