Here is a list of the top selling Steam games of all time

NOTE: Half Life 2's numbers are not necessarily accurate- most of that game's sales came before Steam began compiling user data (which is what this is based on), so its actual sales should be significantly higher).

Also, I am absolutely stunned at that sales figure for Civilization V- 6 million sold so far? For reference, the entire Civilization series up to IV had sold 12 million combined. So glad that such an amazing game got amazing sales.

Anyway, here's your source.

Surprised by the lack of Total War. These for over 5 years have almost been at the top of steams most played games.

But... nothing, nada.

The lowest selling game on that list is 5 million copies, I highly doubt any Total War has sold close to that number. Strategy games in general won't sell that high (unless they are called Star/Warcraft or Age of Empires) which is what makes Civilization's success so much more astonishing.

This shows what is "RIGHT NOW" POPULAR. This does not sell what is top selling games OF ALL TIME.

Dota 2 sold 0 copies.

Why was TF2 included in a top selling list? It became F2P, didn't it?

This shows that you didn't actually read the source. And that, as always, you ended up making a fucking fool of yourself.

Eventually.

I guess 'selling' is too loose a term here- 'most successful' would probably be better, but eh. The idea stands.

tf2 is free so not surprising but where is cod? expected it to be more popular. i guess pc crowd loves bf more

This statistic does not show what is best selling game of all time. It shows what or how much is PLAYED AT MOMENT

That's not what the title says.

More people need to play Day of Defeat, perhaps it could turn around Valve's total lack of interest in the series...

hahhahahha reading comprehension fail haha freedom u truly are a moron which explains why u like xbox.

Here are some other graphs. Call of Duty ranks high on the most played lists.

People should play Lost Coast. It was kewl.

Yeah, you must admit its quite amazing that they managed to top the top SELLING games list considering both those games are free, as is Lost Coast and HL2:DM.

I absolutely loved this article on Anand, and I loved that we got to see both owned and unplayed. That's something that's necessary to evaluate if you're talking about Steam game sales.

Awesome information.

I actually have steam because HL2 GOTY edition forced it. I hated it at the time but love steam now. All my games are account based and easily transfer from PC to PC anytime.

Lost Coast and HL2 DM require ownership of HL2,so that at least points to the number of copies sold for HL2,and noting that certainly not everyone that owns HL2 has installed/played LC or DM,so the overall number for HL2 must be quite a bit higher.

Didn't Day of Defeat, Ricochet and Deathmatch Classic come with a physical copy of Condition Zero?

I think this is when steam was still green.

The unplayed stats are basically wrong because until roughly 2010-2011 Steam didn't track or never accurately tracked game play time especially for the first 7 or so years of its existence. So games older than 2009 will have completely wrong or non existent data. And even games released past that time on steam such Deus Ex Invisible War don't work at all for game play stats. That's why HL2: Lost Coast looks so low, everyone already played it BEFORE stats were being tracked.

I figured DOTA 2 and TF2 topped the list. What surprises me is that CSGO already has more hours under its belt than L4D2 lol. People must go on marathons with military based shooters. I would also like to point out that most of those games really aren't that demanding for a PC. I wonder if that factors in?

i'm so glad Civilization is doing so great. An amazing game deserves all the success it gets.

Char you should make a note that these figures aren't official numbers, very interesting though, reading through article atm.

Props to the most addictive game of all time, Football Manager, it might not sell as much as some but its on the chart of the most played (and yes I've helped a little with that :P - at 252 hrs )

@ConanTheStoner said:

@FreedomFreeLife said:

This statistic does not show what is best selling game of all time. It shows what or how much is PLAYED AT MOMENT

LOL

The Civilization series is now over 21 Million copies sold.wich,like the article says it´s about the same as the whole Gears of War series sold,so great news overall,good to see plenty of strategy games sell really good unlike some idiots in this forum imply.

@ConanTheStoner said:

@FreedomFreeLife said:

This statistic does not show what is best selling game of all time. It shows what or how much is PLAYED AT MOMENT

hahahahaha

Glad to see that sales make people buy the game even more . They have so many games in their steam library that they don't even have time to finish all of them . Steam is great platform for both gamers and developers . On other hand , it is nice to see that there are some great games on that list , instead of crappy rehash titles .

I hate to say it my freind but I suspect Total War would be up on that list if not for piracy. Most of the titles, including the ones listed here, feed off multiplayer infrastructure. Although part of the package, it's generally always been afterthought of the total war franchise.

Shogun 2 had effort put into it. It was deeply flawed. But none the less promising. Sadly CA decided to totally ignore MP with Rome II.

It seems Total War Battles (a free2play title) will be the multiplayer focus. No doubt it will become a top played title as long as Sega do not over-monetize it with a pay-to-win model. Which is highly likely.

Civilization V is the only game from that list I've purchased from Steam.

I'm really glad to see Portal 2 hanging in there because that was heavily pirated despite being an undemanding game, great reviews and a low price.

That's a VERY Valve heavy top half. Very interesting article

Not sure what I hate more: PC gamers or their games.

Great to see that tons of PC games on steam are multi million sellers,great numbers.

I'm not a big fan of your stereotypical PC Gamer, especially the elitist jaggoffs around here, but the second half of your statement just makes you sound really stupid.

Shhhh, no more tears

List dominated by first party games? No EA games on this platform?

Hmmmm, what does that remind me of...

Steam usually gets EA games, just not until there is a version available that includes all of the DLC.

What was the last EA game that was made available on Steam?

Cool info.

maybe game sales is like music sales,

for instance if you give out a copy of a cd at your concert,

it counts as a sale and is chartable. who knows?

prob crysis 2 before it got pulled. from what i can remember the disagreement was about ea games directing users to their store instead of the steam store, basically ea violated the terms of usage on purpose as a fu$k u to valve and so fans blame steam for their terms of conditions rather than ea

Crysis 2 is back on Steam now. The last full release was Kingdoms of Amalur in 2012, though. They still release new Sims 3 content, but it does look like they are going to stop putting games on Steam entirely.

yes there are a few stories on the internet at the moment about the percentage of steam games that are unplayed, etc.

i contribute to this statistic. i don't think of it as a backlog, it's just a library. i usually look through my library and find something to play - no worries, but of course this leaves many unplayed games.

interesting to see the top games though. football manager surprised me, and for the same performance metrics eve online was doing really well.

I love Civ5s success, I remember when Firaxis were asked about the concern of piracy and they said good games sell and I think they were right about that one lol.

Shockers! None of those games do anything for me.

Good to see HL2: Lost Coast up there... Really enjoyed it.

TF2 and DOTA is F2P... so I can't really consider them top selling. :P Most owned though... yeah I can see that.

Nice to see TF2 up there though! EVERYONE should play that game. Best multiplayer FPS ever!

This. However, not very surprising considering the popularity of the titles. As others said its very valve heavy, wonder why that is. Glad to see L4D2 on the list, definitely my favorite valve game.