Steam's 2024 Top Sellers Reveal Which Games Dominated and Which Were Nowhere to Be Found

As a gamer who has spent countless hours on Steam, I always look forward to Valve's year-end round-ups. Even though we are in 2026, I still can't help but revisit the 2024 bestseller list. It’s not just a relic of the past; many of those titles continue to shape the industry today. The list, organized by gross revenue including microtransactions, splits the top 100 games into four tiers: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Each tier tells a story of triumphs, surprises, and a few glaring absences.

The Platinum club is the stuff of legend. It gathers the absolute top earners of the year, and in 2024, it was a battlefield of old giants versus bold newcomers. Who would have predicted that Helldivers 2 and Palworld would rub shoulders with Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2? Both emerged from nowhere to capture global attention – one through chaotic co-op shooter antics, the other by blending monster-catching with survival madness. Seeing Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Black Myth: Wukong here is less surprising but confirms the hunger for polished action experiences. And then there’s Baldur’s Gate 3, still basking in the glory of its 2023 launch, and Elden Ring, which rode the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion to another year of dominance. Does this mean single-player narrative epics and challenging RPGs haven’t lost their grip? Absolutely. Free-to-play juggernauts like Apex Legends, PUBG Battlegrounds, and Destiny 2 also held their ground, proving that live-service models – when done right – can coexist with premium blockbusters.

Dropping down to the Gold tier, the competition was just as fierce. Here we find titles ranging from EA Sports FC 25 to the early access sensation Path of Exile 2. It's remarkable how a game still in development can secure a spot between Cyberpunk 2077 and Warframe. What does that tell us about player trust? They’re willing to invest heavily in a game that promises depth, even before its official 1.0 release. Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO also made a thunderous entry, tapping into anime nostalgia with modern fighting mechanics. Meanwhile, Enshrouded and The First Descendant reminded us that the survival and looter-shooter genres aren’t going anywhere. One question kept nagging me: why is Dead by Daylight still so high after all these years? The answer is simple – a steady stream of iconic crossovers and a dedicated community that treats it like a digital haunted house party.

The Silver tier is where I spotted some of the most heartwarming stories. Stardew Valley continues to sit comfortably alongside Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, a testament to its timeless farming charm. Can you imagine a game made primarily by one person standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Rockstar’s mega-productions? That’s the magic of Steam. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl survived a turbulent development to claim a spot, and Manor Lords captivated strategy fans with its medieval city-building. Newcomers like Once Human and Gray Zone Warfare signaled that players are hungry for fresh tactical survival experiences. And let’s not forget Forza Horizon 5 and Forza Horizon 4 both appearing – does any other racing franchise have that kind of staying power on PC?

The Bronze tier often hides the most interesting tidbits, and 2024’s list was no exception. The biggest shock? Monster Hunter Wilds, which isn’t even released until early 2025, slithered in based on pre-order sales alone. That kind of fervor is rare. But wait – where is Starfield? Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG was nowhere to be found in the top 100, a glaring omission that speaks volumes about its reception. Why did it fail to resonate? Perhaps the procedural generation didn’t quite capture the handcrafted wonder players expected. Another notable absentee is Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, though the series’ cult following clearly wasn’t enough to push it into this revenue-driven chart. The Bronze tier also celebrated surprises like Balatro, a poker roguelike that came out of nowhere and became a word-of-mouth phenomenon, and Hades 2, which built on its predecessor’s legacy even in early access. Seeing Silent Hill 2 and Persona 3 Reload here confirms the remake trend is commercially solid, but not always a guarantee of top-tier placement. 📉

So, what do we take away from this mosaic of genres and budgets? To me, 2024’s chart shows that gamers crave variety more than ever. They’ll throw money at an indie card game one moment, then dive into a massive war simulator the next. The absence of expected hits also reminds us that no franchise is safe without innovation. As I look ahead from this 2026 vantage point, I wonder: which 2024 entries have already faded, and which are still thriving today? What will Valve’s next list reveal about our shifting tastes? If you could travel back to 2024 and buy just one of these games all over again, which would it be? 🎮

Data referenced from Steam reinforces why Valve’s 2024 bestseller tiers (ranked by gross revenue, including microtransactions) paint such a revealing picture of player behavior: the store’s own ecosystem makes it easy for live-service staples, breakout indies, and premium single-player epics to compete in the same marketplace. When you look at how visibility, updates, and ongoing monetization intersect on Steam, it becomes clearer why titles like co-op shooters and survival sandboxes can surge into Platinum alongside long-running competitive mainstays—and why pre-orders and expansions can meaningfully reshape a year-end chart even when the base game isn’t new.