Top 15 Selling Steam Games by Gross $ (August 27, 2023)

1 Baldur's Gate 3
There may never be another cRPG that sells like BG3, but let's hope that its success means good things for the genre. Obsidian may never make another one now that they are owned by Microsoft, but new developers form every day, so here's to hoping...

2) Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon.
The game seems to be selling well, but you can't like being behind BG3, which launched almost a month ago. Apparently this is a very good game if you like mechs.

3) Starfield
Since the release of BG3, Starfield has been from first to third in this list every time I've checked it, so that's a good sign for Bethesda even though anyone who pays a few dollars can play the game on Game Pass. Like Hogwarts Legacy, they are going to screw up their concurrent player count by letting people who bought the expensive version of the game start playing in two days, a week before the official launch.

4) Warframe
This always does well, but I think it's this high mostly because Tennocon 2023 just finished, and also they have a popular $90 DLC which is further down this list but still in the top 20. Yes, that really is $90. I didn't accidentally add the zero on the end. It's the most ridiculously priced DLC I've ever seen. You don't even get a new Warframe, just a handful of nicknacks like skins and a small amount of premium currency that will buy you another skin. I'm sure that somehow, somewhere there's a worse deal than this. I just can't think of one.

5) Destiny 2
Another very successful live-service, never-ending cash drain.

6) Sunkenland
A new, ambitious, but currently very rough singleplayer/multiplayer survival game that just entered into early access. Based on user reviews, the game has great potential as soon as they start ironing out some of the many bugs. From uninvited randos joining your game and cheat-spawning battleships all over the place, to simply losing all your progress when you log out, the game sounds like it needs a bit of work.

7) Call of Duty
Never heard of it. But apparently it's an annual series that used to be on Steam, but didn't sell very well. Then they pulled it off of Steam for a few years and, apparently, absence makes the heart grow fonder because now it is selling like crazy. Or maybe they just made it better now. Don't know, don't care. The point is that it's moments away from being owned by Microsoft, which means I'll be able to play the SP campaigns without paying anything outside of my Game Pass sub.

8) Forza Horizon 5
Two years old, it's on this list because it is 50 percent off. I have 780 hours in this game trying to get good at it. Never thought I'd really succeeded until I started playing multiplayer and they were even worse than I was.

9) Naraka Bladepoint
Another "free" game that is never ending in the sense that so long as you are willing to do the same thing over and over again, no one's going to stop you. It's a NieR themed Battle Royale.

10) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
A Dead by Daylight clone that says it is based on true events (there actually are people in Texas with chainsaws). It's 3 crazy murderers versus 4 survivors. Looks pretty good if you like such things. At least it isn't "free".

11) Wayfinder
A game by the Darksiders devs and published by the Warframe devs. It's an SP/co-op/MMO that struggled early with connectivity issues and was review bombed quite badly, but apparently that is fixed now and it's up to "mixed" reviews. It costs $20 now, but if you wait 6 months, it is going "free to play".

12) Icarus
The primary feature of this survival game is that if you forget to play it for a couple of days you have to start over. It's on sale right now.

13) Cyberpunk 2077
Three years old and not on sale, but the new expansion is getting ready to come out in a month.

14) Saints Row
After spending the last two years sitting in time out (Epic exclusive), this abomination has finally launched on Steam. Perhaps sensing no one would care, it has launched with a 67 percent discount. The Patient Gamers Club has given it "mixed" reviews so far.

15) War Thunder
It's free-to-play so long as you don't want to have any cool vehicles (it's a vehicular combat game). If you want cool vehicles, please check the $827 worth of DLC. Reminds me a little of DCS World, a free military flight sim where almost every plane and mission is sold separately (over $3300 worth of DLC)
 
6) Sunkenland
…very rough … just entered into early access. … many bugs. From uninvited randos joining your game and cheat-spawning battleships all over the place, to simply losing all your progress when you log out…

Am I missing sth? That at #6 makes me question the whole list. Either Steam have borked the list big-time, or 20 sales gets you on the list.

Or by far the most likely—I'm missing sth. But what?
 
Am I missing sth? That at #6 makes me question the whole list. Either Steam have borked the list big-time, or 20 sales gets you on the list.

Or by far the most likely—I'm missing sth. But what?
First of all, I apologize for not linking to the games. I just looked at my post for the first time and had a big WTH moment.

I'm not sure what you mean by 20 sales. If you mean the 20,000 sales estimated by "augmented Steam", I can assure you that number is significantly below the actual figure since they've had almost that many concurrent players. Sales estimates are always off during the first week or so. The game only has 1100 reviews, but that's not that unusual for a buggy early access game that just launched. A lot of players will hold off reviewing the game while it's in a rough state if they are still having a good time and think the game has potential. If the game was either great or completely unplayable, it would have a lot more reviews right now. But these are early access survival game players. Most of them expect disaster and know to hold off for awhile before reviewing.
 
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Zloth

Community Contributor
Nice list!
1 Baldur's Gate 3
There may never be another cRPG that sells like BG3, but let's hope that its success means good things for the genre. Obsidian may never make another one now that they are owned by Microsoft, but new developers form every day, so here's to hoping...
? Obsidian? They've got a history in the genre and there are rumors they made a pitch to try and get rights for BG3, but Larian made the game.

The single player campaign for the original Call of Duty was pretty fun, as I recall. It'd be good to see that on GamePass.

I poked my nose into the reviews for Saints Row and people were giving some reviewer grief for daring suggest that he might change his review to a positive one after the internet had already decided the game was bad. Some people!
 
Nice list!

? Obsidian? They've got a history in the genre and there are rumors they made a pitch to try and get rights for BG3, but Larian made the game.

The single player campaign for the original Call of Duty was pretty fun, as I recall. It'd be good to see that on GamePass.

I poked my nose into the reviews for Saints Row and people were giving some reviewer grief for daring suggest that he might change his review to a positive one after the internet had already decided the game was bad. Some people!
Doesn't mean I'm right, but the only reason I think there's even a small chance Obsidian will make another cRPG is because of how huge a blockbuster BG3 is. I think it's more than likely that they'll stick with games with higher natural sales potential like Avowed. I think the same thing about InXile. Xbox didn't buy these guys to make cRPGs.

As for Saints Row, all I know is that the trailers looked miserable. I haven't actually played it. It could surprise me.
 
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these are early access survival game players. Most of them expect disaster
Ah of course, that's the bit I was missing! These guys want to suffer even more than RPG players. No wonder the world is in the state it's in, Climate Change for the Cleanse!

Seriously tho, I can't believe so many would jump in on a game in such a state. Isn't there any polished finished game in the genre they could play?
 
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Ah of course, that's the bit I was missing! These guys want to suffer even more than RPG players. No wonder the world is in the state it's in, Climate Change for the Cleanse!

Seriously tho, I can't believe so many would jump in on a game in such a state. Isn't there any polished finished game in the genre they could play?
Just a guess, of course, but maybe they've already played all those games? For new, big survival games, this year has brought us Sons of the Forest and Forever Skies, neither of which are the kind of broad sandbox that inspires 100 plus hours of play. I'm a survival player, and I don't currently have a survival game to play, so maybe they are in the same boat. I can only replay games like Valheim, Ark and Seven Days to Die so many times, and I've already replayed 3 or 4 older survival games this year. If I weren't getting ready to play Starfield, I might have bought Sunkenland, myself, and I do have it on my wishlist.

I think maybe the biggest thing working in Sunkenland's favor right now is that 3 huge survival games that were supposed to come out this summer, or last spring, all got delayed.

Plus, these players may just have different expectations than regular players. Games like The Forest, which is completely beloved by survival players, launched in an unbelievably bad state. It didn't even have a save feature. Every time you launched the game you had to start over. Ark was also horrible at launch.

Also, they are actually hurting themselves with the bad launch. A game like that I would expect even better sales than it's having currently.
 
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I weirdly really want to try out Saints Row but $20 for the standard edition still seems a bit high. Based on videos I’ve watched, it may be good for mindless dumb fun but in my opinion $20 for mindless dumb fun is too much. I’ll wait for it to go down to $10, but I’m not itching to play it.
 
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I weirdly really want to try out Saints Row but $20 for the standard edition still seems a bit high. Based on videos I’ve watched, it may be good for mindless dumb fun but in my opinion $20 for mindless dumb fun is too much. I’ll wait for it to go down to $10, but I’m not itching to play it.
I think so too, usually in such cases I wait for some kind of sale, for example on Halloween or New Year, then you can play the game with peace of mind, knowing that you did not give all the money in the world for it. I think most people do this, don't they?
 

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