True to tradition, Valve does not communicate a real perfectly ranked top 100 but offers a random ranking by classifying the games in the following four groups: Platinum (1ᵉʳ – 12ᵉ), Gold (13ᵉ – 24ᵉ), Silver (25ᵉ – 50ᵉ) and Bronze (51ᵉ – 100ᵉ). And this year, the coveted Platinum rank includes 6 games already awarded the previous year. These are Destiny 2, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Naraka: Bladepoint, Apex Legends but also Valve’s two indestructible pillars Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. As for the most significant new features of the year, they are called Elden Ring, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Lost Ark, Dying Light 2: Stay Human, Monster Hunter Rise and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Dueling. Titles from Japan, China, South Korea, the United States and Poland to save the honor of Europe.
The rise of free-to-play
It may be obvious or on the contrary seem natural, but of the 12 biggest receipts on Steam in 2022, no less than 8 are free-to-play. And again, titles like Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Minecraft, Valorant or even Overwatch 2 could have increased the score if they were hosted on the Valve platform. Big hits from last year, Valheim and New World couldn’t go the distance for their own reasons and find themselves demoted to Bronze rank, among the bottom 50 of the top 100. Another notable fact is the first time since Steam made this annual ranking (2017) that GTA 5 did not appear in the Platinum rank and had to settle for a Gold medal. So, it comes, this GTA 6?
The Gold group (13ᵉ – 24ᵉ) includes only three titles released in 2022, namely Total War: Warhammer 3, FIFA 23 and God of War, PlayStation’s biggest hit to date on PC. Red Dead Redemption 2, Forza Horizon 5, Warframe and War Thunder take Gold like last year, but special mention goes to the rebound of Cyberpunk 2077, which had a better year in 2022 than 2021 and is moving up the hierarchy. CD Projekt was also pleased with the return to favor of its game thanks to the effect Cyberpunk: Edge Runners on Netflix.
The Argent group (25ᵉ – 50ᵉ) honors successful independents released this year (Stray, Cult of the Lamb, V Rising), those who have been around longer (Rust, RimWorld, The Forest) or even those who have experienced a true resurrection (Project Zomboid was released in 2013). We also find the other big hit of the year from PlayStation studios, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. And indeed, 2022 will also be remembered as the year when Sony began to let loose in its strategy of opening up to the PC.
Silver medalist in 2021 when it was released in November, Halo Infinite must be satisfied this year with Bronze (51ᵉ – 100ᵉ), symbol of the difficulties that Microsoft’s flagship game has encountered since its release. Fortunately, today’s Microsoft is far from being limited to Halo, as evidenced by the presence of Forza Horizon 5 (Gold), Sea of Thieves (Silver), Forza Horizon 4 (Bronze), Age of Empires 4 (Bronze) , Microsoft Flight Simulator (Bronze) and Grounded (Bronze) plus the few Bethesda games (Skyrim, Fallout 76, The Elder Scrolls Online) present in the top 100.
The VR ranking unfortunately reflects the lack of major new releases (and arguably also the rise of Meta Quest 2) as only Zenith: The Last City and Bonelab made it into the top 12 of this year’s new releases. Beat Saber (May 2019) and Half-Life: Alyx (March 2020) are by far the most popular VR games on PC.
Steam Deck, the new PlayStation Portable
Finally, Valve shared the list of the most popular games of the year on Steam Deck, based on the number of people playing simultaneously. What compensate for the absence of Sony portable console since Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, God of War, Days Gone, Horizon Zero Dawn and Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection are all present in this list. Add to that a taste for Japanese games (Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, Persona 5 Royal, Tactics Ogre: Reborn, Monster Hunter Rise, Tales of Arise, Resident Evil Village, Sonic Frontiers, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice) and for games not too greedy indies (Cult of the Lamb, Hades, Vampire Survivors, Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire, Hollow Knight) and we can say that the use of the Steam Deck is based on a healthy diversity.