Steam Reveals Its Best-Selling and Most Played Games of 2021

Steam has released its Best of 2021 lists and, while it doesn't rank the top games in each category, they do reveal which games were the most played, sold the best, and much more.

Steam's Best of 2021 lists include Top Sellers, New Releases, Most Played, Early Access Grads, Best of VR, and Controller Friendly; and games like Valheim, New World, Halo Infinite, Battlefield 2042, PUBG, Counter-Strike and Grand Theft Auto V appear in multiple categories.

The Top Sellers category features the top 100 games as measured by gross revenue and places each one into the Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze tier; but it does not detail how much a game has to earn for it to qualify for a new level. The Platinum Top Sellers, in alphabetical order, are as follows;

Apex Legends
Battlefield 2042
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dead by Daylight
Destiny 2
DOTA 2
Grand Theft Auto V
Naraka: Bladepoint
New World
PUBG: Battlegrounds
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Valheim

The New Releases category is measured the same way as the Top Sellers one, but games only qualify if they were released in 2021. Sorry, GTA V, but this is one award you can't win! The Platinum-tier New Releases, in alphabetical order, are as follows;

Age of Empires IV
Back 4 Blood
Battlefield 2042
Farming Simulator 22
Forza Horizon 5
Halo Infinite
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
Naraka: Bladepoint
New World
Outriders
Resident Evil Village
Valheim

The Best Games of 2021

The Most Played category celebrates the games that reached the most "highest peak concurrent players" throughout the year. The games that reached the highest tier - Over 200,000 Peak Players - are as follows;

Apex Legends
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Cyberpunk 2077
DOTA 2
Grand Theft Auto V
Halo Infinite
New World
PUBG: Battlegrounds
Rust
Valheim

The Early Access Grads category is all about rewarding the games that left Early Access and earned the most gross revenue in 2021. The Platinum-tier Early Access Grads, in alphabetical order, are as follows;

Breathedge
Chernobylite
Draw & Guess
Endzone: A World Apart
Hell Let Loose
GTFO
Medieval Dynasty
Skul: The Hero Slayer
Solasta: Crown of the Magister
Subnautica: Below Zero
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
Wildermyth

The Best of VR category collects the top-selling VR-exclusive experiences that earned the most gross revenue in 2021. The Platinum-tier Best of VR games, in alphabetical orders, are as follows;

Arizona Sunshine
Beat Saber
Blade & Sorcery
Boneworks
Hal-Life: Alyx
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, & Hand Grenades
Into the Radius
Pavlov
Superhot VR
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
VR Kanojo

Lastly, the Controller Friendly category honors those games that had the most daily active controller players in 2021. The Platinum-tier Controller Friendly games, in alphabetical order, are as follows;