PC games are a massive market, and Steam is their most common home, and some of them have attracted unprecedented audiences over the years. So, we’ve taken a look at those precisely and compiled the list of the most-played Steam games in history.
Most played Steam games of all time
10) Baldur’s Gate 3 – 875,000 peak players
The biggest gaming event of 2023 was the day Baldur’s Gate 3 dropped. The game revitalized the RPG genre and swept through award shows more than deservedly. Larian Studio’s stellar title reached 875,000 concurrent players during its peak and has maintained a position on Steam’s top 10 for months after release and still does at the time of writing. By using SteamDB‘s estimates, Baldur’s Gate 3 has sold somewhere between 12,000,000 and over 20,000,000 copies on Steam, making it by far one of the platform’s biggest titles.
9) Hogwarts Legacy – 879,000 peak players
A controversial but nevertheless magnetic title, Hogwarts Legacy was, alongside Baldur’s Gate 3 and others, one of the pivotal releases of 2023. The game amassed a significant following with its RPG-style gameplay and though it didn’t have the longevity of BG3, it still performed exceptionally well. Hogwarts Legacy is estimated to have sold somewhere around 5.5 million units on Steam, placing it high on Steam’s top performers list but it has since dwindled and maintains about 16,000 players during peak hours.
8) New World – 913,000 peak players
Many a game has come and gone claiming to be the WoW killer. New World was Amazon’s attempt at the endeavor which initially held ground but fell off as time went by. The MMO peaked at nearly a million players around its release in Sept. 2021—a number which has only gone down since. The game has sold approximately six million units and has less-than-desirable numbers for an MMORPG and generates up to 20,000 players on its good days but it can be worth giving it a try.
7) Elden Ring – 953,000 peak players
It is incredible to see how far FromSoftware has gotten over the past decade and a half, going from a niche PlayStation reputation to a global phenomenon. Elden Ring is by far the company’s most successful title and it hit just shy of a million concurrent players when it first released in 2022 and has seen ups and downs in the years following.
The game still maintains around 60,000 players during peak hours and the mounting hype for the DLC Shadows of the Erdtree is only going to make those go up.
6) Cyberpunk 2077 – 1,054,000 peak players
At once one of the most successful and most disastrous game openings to date, Cyberpunk 2077 will go down in history as a reminder of how developers should ensure the maximum quality before release. Even with all the shenanigans, Cyberpunk 2077 sold an estimated 21.5 million copies in its three-year lifespan. After suffering through those years trying to fix the game, CDPR succeeded and polished a rough diamond into something worth a mighty price. The Phantom Liberty DLC was also phenomenal and a well-made sendoff for a flawed title.
5) Dota 2 – 1,295,000 peak players
As a live service title, Dota 2 captures many players’ attention daily. Its heights were reached way back in 2016 and the game almost hit the 1.3 million concurrent player mark. Dota 2 has been enjoyed by innumerable players since its 2011 beta and it has managed to remain League‘s main competitor for all this time, even though the latter is in the lead in terms of sheer numbers.
Dota 2 regularly hits 600,000 to 700,000 concurrent players depending on the day and remains Valve’s second-most active game.
4) Lost Ark – 1,325,000 peak players
Coming all the way from South Korea, Lost Ark was the free-to-play alternative to Diablo marred with controversies. It’s a curious game to enter here as officially it is among the most played games on Steam ever but also faced accusations of player botting to inflate the number—a notion often mentioned by big names in the industry such as Asmongold, who was a dedicated Lost Ark player. These days Lost Ark rarely pulls more than 40,000 to 50,000 concurrent players and has largely lost its initial following.
3) Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) – 1,818,000 peak players
Valve’s pride and joy and most popular game, CS2 has been a decade-long rollercoaster ride. Taking off in the form of CS:GO in 2012, the game earned a place among the greats under that monicker and its current iteration is going to have some trouble beating that record. CS2 often breaks a million players during its 24-hour peaks but it has lost some of its base since it launched.
The game has been recovering losing nearly a quarter of its active players and it keeps its position as the usual number one spot on Steam’s most-played games (though the following entry has changed that drastically).
2) Palworld – 2,018,000 peak players (and counting)
The most recent on this list and perhaps the most unexpected is this stellar action-survival title that has nothing to do with Pokemon or other Nintendo IPs. Jokes aside, Palworld has been a smash hit for the Japanese developer Pocketpair, clocking in a peak of over two million players at the time of writing. It is likely to rise further as time goes on (if, hopefully, the hype doesn’t pass quickly) and is on its way to challenge the number one spot for being the supreme Steam title. However, it still has a long way to go to reach that level.
1) PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) – 3,257,000 peak players
The game that started the whole battle royale craze, PUBG was a cultural phenomenon back during its heyday in 2017 and 2018. Before Fortnite took the scene as the dominant BR on the market, PUBG was a smash hit, despite not even being free-to-play. The game cost around $20, but that couldn’t stop it from reaching Steam’s highest concurrent player count ever, which is a record that still holds up to this day.
No game on Steam has come close since, and even Valve’s own couldn’t make it. Palworld has a real shot, and it remains to be seen if it actually succeeds.
