The top 100 best sellers on Steam from 2016

That's a nice page, but I don't think it's a new sale: the Winter sale ends in about 6 hours, and I see no indication that the top 100 will be discounted for any additional time.

Yeah I think they were already on sale. Valve's being a bit confusing once again.

What I find really cool is that in the top three tiers (silver to platinum) for every game that supports Mac but not Linux there's a game that supports Linux but not Mac. The percentage of games supporting Linux is huge compared to the percentage of actual gamers on Linux. Bodes well for the future of the platform I think.

There are some surprising things in there. GTA5 and Witcher 3 in platinum even though they are 2015 games is quite an achievement (if only they were available for Linux). I'm also quite surprised to see Stellaris in the gold. I expected that to be too "niche" for big sales numbers. Also, how did Astroneer make bronze in two weeks of EA? Also two Valve games in platinum, one in gold and few more below that show that Valve actually still makes quite a bit of money on games.


Last edited by Ehvis on 2 January 2017 at 1:21 pm UTC

A little statistic...

Of 12 "platin" games:
* all available for Windows
* 5 available for Mac
* 5 available for Linux

Of 12 "gold" games:
* all available for Windows
* 4 available for Mac
* 4 available for Linux

Of 15 "silver" games:
* all available for Windows
* 9 available for Mac
* 8 available for Linux

Of 58 "bronze" games:
* all available for Windows
* 27 available for Mac
* 23 available for Linux

(It seems to be more like a top 97 by the way, if I'm able to count.)

That's more than 40% of the biggest games on Steam. Better than I expected.


Last edited by Eike on 2 January 2017 at 3:08 pm UTC

Yeah I think they were already on sale. Valve's being a bit confusing once again.

Valve's not being confusing for people who can read. It's pretty clear in huge letters on the store frontpage
"TOP-SELLING GAMES
Last chance to get great deals on the best sellers from this Steam Winter Sale".

Of 15 "silver" games:
* all available for Windows
* 9 available for Mac
* 8 available for Linux

(It seems to be more like a top 97 by the way, if I'm able to count.)

You seem to be missing some of them, maybe due to your location. I see 16 games in the silver tier, 9 of which are available for Linux. Payday 2 not showing for you maybe?

Yeah I think they were already on sale. Valve's being a bit confusing once again.

Valve's not being confusing for people who can read. It's pretty clear in huge letters on the store frontpage
"TOP-SELLING GAMES
Last chance to get great deals on the best sellers from this Steam Winter Sale".

Seems to have confused some and I doubt they're illiterate. Also we're not talking about the store front page.


Last edited by tuubi on 2 January 2017 at 3:24 pm UTC

You seem to be missing some of them, maybe due to your location. I see 16 games in the silver tier, 9 of which are available for Linux. Payday 2 not showing for you maybe?

Ah, that might totally be the case!
It's not Payday 2, but it might be Football Manager or violent (zombie?) stuff.


Last edited by Eike on 2 January 2017 at 3:26 pm UTC

Any one else had a pop up with the Steam Hardware Survey yesterday?
Fortunately, it happened to me when I was on my steam Linux account and not on my other steam windows account.

Article updated to avoid confusion.

Article updated to avoid confusion.

Did you add the statistics to the article as well or have I been blind an hour ago? X)

Article updated to avoid confusion.

Did you add the statistics to the article as well or have I been blind an hour ago? X)

Whole article was updated.

43/100 is pretty good and important to note that one of the hundred is actually the steam controller and some of the others, as much as we might like, would never come to Linux. That isn't to say that, come time for sequels, such as with Mafia 3, the strength Linux has behind it now might bring a port next time.

I've been hearing "Year of the Linux Desktop" for the last twenty years, but perhaps, maybe, 2017 might be the year Linux breaks through enough to see most games released with a Linux version...

Arma 3 has a Linux beta, but I guess it's not official.
EDIT: And in BRONZE there is the Steam Controller which isn't a game :D


Last edited by BOYSSSSS on 2 January 2017 at 5:27 pm UTC

43/100 is definitely better than I would have expected. It also cuts directly against the meme of Linux games being all "crappy" indie games--to the contrary, clearly Linux has a bigger percentage of the top games than of games overall. I mean, I dunno how many of these top-selling games were technically "AAA" games in terms of mammoth budgets from big companies, but surely it's more important to have the games people actually bought than the most bloated ones.

I'd have to say this comes close to settling something: Really hard core gamers may still have reasons to want/need Windows so they can have every latest and greatest they choose. But for casual, or even average, gamers nearly half of the top sellers is plenty enough to be able to say, "Yeah you can play games on it".

I mean, I dunno how many of these top-selling games were technically "AAA" games in terms of mammoth budgets from big companies, but surely it's more important to have the games people actually bought than the most bloated ones.

Totally! This is AAA fun, not AAA costs. (*)

(*) I should think of actually becoming PR guy. ;)

I was also pleasantly surprised by how many games of the Top 100 came with a Linux version. Personally, the ratio was even better for me, since I barely could find a game in the Top 100 that I -wanted- and does not come with a Linux version. It was basically Rise of the Tomb Raider (which has a strong chance of getting ported one day), Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls Online. The other Windows-only topsellers I don't want enough to miss them...