Why it matters: Steam’s Best of The Year feature is one of those end-of-year events that has turned into tradition. 2024 saw a mix of older and newer games that were top sellers, and there are a couple of titles conspicuously low in the charts – or missing completely.
Valve never shows individual total gross revenue numbers of its best-selling titles; instead, it groups them into Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze categories.
The Platinum group features some of the best releases from 2024: Space Marine 2, Helldivers 2, Black Myth: Wukong, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. You’ll find all of these in our Best PC Games You Should be Playing feature.
Several older games are still making their studios and publishers money — Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 are also in the Platinum group.
As the chart is based on total gross revenue for the year, popular free-to-play titles with in-game transactions, including Counter-Strike 2, Apex Legends, and Destiny 2, make up the rest of the Platinum category.
Scanning further down the list, it’s good to see that Cyberpunk 2077 made it into the Gold group this year. After being universally panned on release, the RPG’s long redemption arc has led to a Very Positive rating – its 94% positive Recent Reviews rating is just 1% off Overwhelmingly Positive.
The Silver Group features the likes of Dragon’s Dogma 2, Diablo IV, and Stalker 2, which was only released on November 20 and recently became profitable. The FPS survival/horror sold a million units in two days – impressive, considering it’s also on Game Pass.
The Bronze section of the best-sellers chart
As the chart is based on revenue, you’ll find the excellent, budget-priced Balatro in the Bronze section. Silent Hill 2 is also here, which is a little surprising, as is Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which isn’t. Another game that went from loser to winner, No Man’s Sky, made enough money to enter the Bronze group this year.
PC Gamer notes that every game from last year’s Platinum category is somewhere in the 2024 list, with the one exception being Starfield.
Steam also compiles a most-played list based on peak player numbers. The category for games with 450,000 or more peak concurrent players features the usual multiplayer games, as well as Black Myth, Elden Ring, and the recent Path of Exile 2.
The rest of the charts are made up of most-popular Steam Deck games, which includes Balatro, Dave the Diver, and Hades. There is also a New Releases chart featuring Manor Lords and Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero in the Platinum section. Valve even includes a list of the top games played with a controller.
