Steam Looks Back at the Games of "2022"
The most played, best selling, hottest releases, and most confusing community voted game of the year awards of 2022.
Before we dive back into the usual newsletter format, I wanted to take a look at Steam’s 2022 retrospective posts. In case you missed it during the busy holidays, Valve put out a list of the platforms top sellers, most played, hottest releases, best early access titles, and the community game of the year awards.
As a note, games are sorted into buckets with Platinum being the highest. Titles within those buckets are randomly sorted and aren’t indicative of any kind of ranking, short of the fact that they did better than those in Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
Data from January 1st, 2022 through December 18th, 2022.
2022 Top Games Measured by Gross Revenue
It’s no surprise to see Dota 2, Counter-Strike, Destiny, PUBG, and Apex Legends continue to do well. Likewise, it was easy to predict both Modern Warfare II and Elden Ring making this list. If anything, it’s surprising, to me at least, to see Dying Light 2 and Monster Hunter Rise make the cut.
Monster Hunter Rise
Dying Light 2 Stay Human
DOTA 2
Apex Legends
Elden Ring
Lost Ark
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
PUBG Battlegrounds
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
NARAKA: Bladepoint
Destiny 2
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2022 Hottest Releases
Steam measured gross revenue from the first two weeks of each game’s availability. These were the best selling in that time period.
Total War III: Warhammer
Dying Light 2 Stay Human
Monster Hunter Rise
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Trilogy
Lost Ark
V Rising
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
Elden Ring
FIFA 23
Stray
Warhammer: Darktide
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
2022’s Most Played Games
To make it into the Platinum category, a game needed to have over 240,000 peak players.
Valve has excluded brief spikes in player counts due to things like giveaways and free weekends.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dying Light 2 Stay Human
PUBG Battlegrounds
Elden Ring
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
Destiny 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Goose Goose Duck (the Among Us clone)
ARK: Survival Evolved
Apex Legends
DOTA 2
Lost Ark
Most Popular Steam Deck Games
Gaming on the go! Which titles are proving popular for Valve’s handheld?
No Man’s Sky
Red Dead Redemption 2
Persona 5 Royal
Stray
Elden Ring
Cult of the Lamb
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Cyberpunk 2077
MultiVersus
Vampire Survivors
Marvel Spider-Man Remastered
Hades
The 2022 Steam Awards
Let me begin by saying community chosen awards are always like this, but it’s funny to look at nonetheless.
Game of the Year: Elden Ring
Well deserved.
VR Game of the Year: Hitman 3
While I did want to dismiss this one, technically IO added VR on January 20, 2022.
Labor of Love: Cyberpunk 2077
It wouldn’t be my first choice, but okay.
Better with Friends: RAFT
Outstanding Visual Style: Marvel Spider-Man: Miles Morales
A PC port of a 2020 PlayStation game.
Other nominees were Scorn, Bendy and the Dark Revival, Cult of the Lamb, and Kena: Bridge of Spirits.
Most Innovative Gameplay: Stray
A game, which we shouldn’t really be celebrating, where you walk around as a cat and interact with things.
Best Game You Suck At: Elden Ring
Best Soundtrack: Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
A PC port of a 2021 PlayStation game.
Was nominated alongside Persona 5 Royal which is a 2019 video game.
Awards are funny.
Outstanding Story-Rich Game: God of War (2018)
Welcome to the Sony awards.
I can’t do the same bit again.
3/5 nominees were PlayStation ports.
Sit Back and Relax: LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Best Game on the Go: Death Stranding Director’s Cut
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Who is playing this on the go?
It beat Vampire Survivors AND Marvel Snap?
That’s it, we’re turning this newsletter arou-