Life is Strange 2 screenshot from Episode 1

[Update #2]: The list of the most successful and popular Steam games of 2022 has now arrived, and it's full of surprises!

[Update]: Valve has now revealed the most played and best selling Steam games of 2021, and I'm happy to say there's quite a few indies in there!

If you're not exactly sure which games to grab from the various winter sales, you might be interested to hear that Valve has now released a whole bunch of data for 2020. This covers things like best-selling games, most played games, best-selling VR games, best new releases, and curiously, best games to play with a controller!

There is far too information for me to cover in brief, so if you're interested in all of the details you'll find the full list over at Steam. For now, however, I would like to bring your attention to the most played games of 2020 as the list is rather interesting. Here they are, in no particular order:

Grand Theft Auto V
 PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
 Life is Strange 2
 Cyberpunk 2077
 Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord
 Among us
 Destiny 2
 Monster Hunter: World
 Counter-STrike: Global Offensive
 Terraria
 Dota 2

First and foremost, you might wondering what in the world Life is Strange 2 is doing there. As I've just found out, apparently that is the result of an absurd number of bots farming Steam cards because the developers accidentally forgot to disable them when they made the first episode free. And so, despite the issue being fixed, the bots have managed to score so many hours that Life is Strange 2 is now firmly entrenched among the most played games in the world!

That little anomaly aside, the reason I wanted to highlight the most played games of 2020 is because the list contains such a nice mixture of indie and AAA games. While it's fairly standard for games like Grand Theft Auto V and Cyberpunk 2077 to be there given their massive budgets, it's also nice to see small indie games like Among Us or Terraria stand next to them as equals, year after year in the case of Terraria. It really goes to show that a good game is a good game regardless of any other factor, which I must admit is a rather comforting thought!

Whatever your opinion on the matter may be, I hope the new stats help you find a few more great games to play. And if you're interested in a few suggestions, I've listed out some of my favorites in a previous article. I hope that helps, and have fun with the holidays!