Valve has launched a handful of end-of-year lists (and corresponding sales) that offer fellow game devs a peek at what games performed best on Steam across a variety of categories.
All in all, the year-end roundup lists the top sellers, top new releases, top-selling VR titles, top former Early Access games, and most played games in from 2018.
However, as with past Steam lists, the specific rankings and actual revenue of each title isn’t disclosed. Instead, most top-seller lists are organized into four tiers: platinum for the 1st through 12th best-sellers, gold for 13th through 24th, silver for 25th through 40th, and bronze for 41st through 100th.
So, in no particular order, the 12 games that earned the most gross revenue on Steam this year are The Elder Scrolls Online, Rocket League, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow Six Siege, Dota 2, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Monster Hunter: World, Civilization VI, Warframe, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, FarCry 5, and Grand Theft Auto V.
A bulk of those games are notably free-to-play or live games, which makes sense given that Valve says revenue from game sales, in-game transactions, and DLC all factor into what lands a game on that top seller’s list.
The top new releases category, however, takes a different approach and ranks the games released this year that generated the most revenue in 2018 according to the month they released. Since 150 games are included in this roundup, it’s best to head over to Steam to see the rankings in full, but games like Celeste, Beat Saber, Cultist Simulator, and Mutant: Road to Eden all make appearances on that list.