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Steam's 20 Best Selling PC Games of 2015 Made $650m, Data Suggests

Independent sales monitor estimates PC sales for GTA 5, Fallout 4, MGS5, Witcher 3, Rocket League, and more.

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Valve's PC network Steam generated close to $3 billion in total game sales during 2015, according to independent financial data.

Of that, the top twenty best-selling games are estimated to have brought in more than $650 million. Grand Theft Auto 5 singlehandedly sold about 3.8 million units, equating to $160 million, while Fallout 4 sold some 2.7 million units and amassed $122.5 million.

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These estimates come from an independent marketplace analysis by Steam Spy owner Sergey Galyonkin, who in a blog post explains that his estimates are not completely accurate.

Galyonkin uses a web API to track the sales data of more than 3,000 Steam games that were released in 2015, and calculates revenue by using each game's lowest advertised price. That would suggest these estimates are conservative, and the final figures could be higher.

According to the Steam Spy data, Konami's latest blockbuster Metal Gear Solid 5 is believed to have made $41 million, while GameSpot's Game of the Year Witcher 3 brought in $38 million. Breakthrough indie hit Rocket League is estimated to have made more than $30 million.

Steam's 20 Best Selling PC Games in 2015

  1. Grand Theft Auto 5
  2. Fallout 4
  3. Metal Gear Solid 5
  4. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  5. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  6. Rocket League
  7. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
  8. Mad Max
  9. Mortal Kombat X
  10. Elite Dangerous
  11. Arma 3
  12. Football Manager 2016
  13. Cities: Skylines
  14. ARK: Survival Evolved
  15. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin
  16. Killing Floor 2
  17. H1Z1
  18. Sid Meier's Civilization V
  19. Dying Light
  20. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Elsewhere in Galyonkin's blog post, data suggests that the rate of new releases on Steam has begun to plateau.

Rate of new Steam releases between Jan 2012 and December 2015.
Rate of new Steam releases between Jan 2012 and December 2015.

Valve, which takes roughly a one-third cut from most games sold on Steam, is believed to have made close to $1 billion from all game sales in 2015, if the Steam Spy data is accurate.

Steam is the world's biggest core games platforms. In January, it was revealed that the platform's peak concurrent user number had passed the 12 million threshold.

Galyonkin estimates that more than 350 million games were sold across the platform in 2015.

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Avatar image for abhisheknerdy20
abhisheknerdy20

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What is Metal Gear Solid?

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Frozzik

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That list makes no sense according to the figures found on the Website.....

It says Mad Max sold 600,000 yet its 8th. Cities Skylines sold 1.9 million, more than 3x that and it's 13th.

http://steamspy.com/app/255710

http://steamspy.com/app/234140

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Avatar image for Savior4Life
Savior4Life

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Wow, Civ 5 still making the top 20. Respect.

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Cassar31

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Weak, false, incorect, fact distorting piece of shit article from gamespot. Why are you trying to diminish PC sales by putting the top 20 figure in the title when the actual news is that steam generated more than 3.5 billion dollars in 2015? Why are you also wrong about the total number, which again, is not almost 3 billion, it's more than 3.5 billion. God damn potatoe site

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SOul_FUNk

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If valve continues as a dominant as the largest platform, we can never expect further improvement regarding the steam client user interface and poor customer support, and steams fonts size setting will never come to us.

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jenovaschilld

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FAllout 4 sold close to 750 million its first day of launch as did Call of duty BO close to, as well, on console. Fact is AAA gaming is doing just fine and console and PC are very healthy platforms. Social games are not going to take over and mobile phone games will not take over the gaming industry.

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jessie82

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surprised dying light is there as the reviews made it seem like utter crap

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deactivated-5a811c5e8c7a4

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@jessie82: It was a fantastic co-op game, but the story was worthless, which brought many people away at the time.

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PETERAKO

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Edited By PETERAKO

@spectre3140: TBH I found it to be a rather unremarkable game. Its an "another day, another zombie game" affair.

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Avatar image for deactivated-5a811c5e8c7a4
deactivated-5a811c5e8c7a4

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I'm actually rather surprised that CSGO is still selling so many copies, considering so many people already own it.

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Avatar image for deactivated-607f3626e5f17
deactivated-607f3626e5f17

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@spectre3140: All the extra accounts they create when they get banned from a server on their primary account. Just buy multiple copies of the game. Some people are really stupid.

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Avatar image for deactivated-5a811c5e8c7a4
deactivated-5a811c5e8c7a4

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@mikemurphy80: Oh, also Smurfs.

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the_culture

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Half-Life 3 confirmed!

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Hurvl

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Steam's users have quite good tastes in games, if these are correct. I especially like that The Witcher 3 is no. 5 and I've also heard much praise about Rocket League, which managed to outsell CoD Blops 3.

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Fedor

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@Hurvl: TW3's numbers are cut in half because of GoG. It would probably be 2nd or 3rd otherwise.

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Wiro_

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Edited By Wiro_

@fedor:You can't really say cut in half, unless you know that 50% of digital sales was through GOG and 50% through Steam.

Evidence (http://www.gamespot.com/articles/more-people-playing-witcher-3-on-gog-than-on-steam/1100-6428013/) suggests that the game sold better through the DRM-free GOG platform than through steam.

This leads to the conclusion that The Witcher 3 was 5th on the Steam List mainly because the GOG version sold better than the steam version. Had the game not been available on GOG it would have competed for the second spot on the list. Although Fallout 4 sure is tough competition.

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Avatar image for deactivated-607f3626e5f17
deactivated-607f3626e5f17

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@Wiro_: Correct. I've traditionally only purchased games on the steam platform whether be direct or keys from a reseller site. I've more recently started purchasing on GOG if the game is available on both to support the completely DRM free nature of the platform.

I could have bought Witcher 3 for $30 on either Steam or GOG, I bought it on GOG so the devs got all the money.

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Fedor

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@Wiro_: Good catch, I stand corrected.

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Iemander

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Man I love Steamspy

Steamspy is inaccurate in how conservative they are. Meaning, the numbers they give are really just the bare possible minimum of what might've been sold. Most likely the real number is far higher than what we see here.

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Tyson8earzz

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In this top 20 list, I own 9 of the games out of the 20 listed here. However if you do your research and shop around, many of the games can be found cheaper from say Greenman Gaming or G2A etc where you don't always pay full price of $60 per game.

I would argue that PC gaming at this point, is very accessible platform, even if you don't have a top notch game rig. There is something for everyone at bargain bin prices, especially during Steam (summer, Fall, Xmas) sales.

PC gaming is far from dead, not by a super long-shot.

Game-on everyone!

/cheers to a great 2016 gaming year

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wookiegr

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Edited By wookiegr

@Tyson8earzz: I also own 9, and out of those I bought new from cd keys for less than $30, as low as $15 for 2 of them, or received free with one of my many video card purchases. Console versions still remain a ridiculous $60 for many.

$15 for 4k/60 or $60 for 900p/30... yeah, PC gaming sure sucks. No wonder kids can't afford decent gaming rigs, they throw their money away on over priced console versions.

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alaskancrab

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$650 million total? Destiny made more than that last year.... so how in the world is PC gaming so big?

Oh wait it's not...it's another damn lie.

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motopram

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Edited By motopram

@alaskancrab: That's just game sales through Steam. Most PC gamers i know buy codes from other places, it's cheaper and obviously that also doesn't include boxed versions. Also that's revenue from only the top 20 games bought through Steam........not all games are available through Steam.

Gaming revenue on PC is currently more than all consoles combined.

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alaskancrab

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@motopram: Yeah well most gamers I know buy Steam codes.... so they are included in these sales.

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Avatar image for deactivated-607f3626e5f17
deactivated-607f3626e5f17

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@alaskancrab: LOL, console peasant REKT by actual facts.

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PJDSouza

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Edited By PJDSouza

@alaskancrab: You can also buy steam codes outside of the steam store on other retail sites. Those numbers aren't included here. I buy most of my steam games on other websites as do many other people.

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Avatar image for motopram
motopram

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@alaskancrab: Depends on the game, Uplay, Origin, Blizzard etc. Bottom line is those number are just from top 20 steam digital sales.

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ahpuck

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I'm so behind, I haven't played any of the top 3 games. I'll wait till the 2016 xmas sale to get them.

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deactivated-5a803cda1fb41

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A lot of foolish people out there paying Steam prices.

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Myron117

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@bernard978: while this is true, it further cements that fact that pc gaming is not dying by anymeans.

And the fact its taking the LOWEST advertised price for all £3000 games means the final figure is more than likely a lot higher.

WB and Rocksteady missed a BIG chunk of the pie with Arkham Knight. More fool them!

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phrasesound

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They are pirates cos they steal sales from consoles!

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berserker66666

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Edited By berserker66666

Wait.....Gamespot's posted data and Eurogame's date seems to be at a conflict.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-01-05-best-selling-steam-games-list-has-a-few-surprises

EDIT: Okay so Gamespot listed top 20 based on revenue and not sales figure while Eurogames listed both.. Why not give us the full story Gamespot?

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