The end of the year is near and Steam once again released a list that shows the games that made the most revenue in 2020.
The end of 2020 comes with another Steam list of top-performing titles
2020 was a crazy year. Yet, it’s ending in a couple of days. Will the next one be better or worse, we’re yet to find out. As is tradition, Steam released the “The Year’s Top 100 Games as Measured by Gross Revenue” list. Which games made the most money for their creators? The list has some obvious titles, but there are some which will surprise you. Let’s go and take a look at the most profitable video games of 2020.
Surprise hits of 2020 (Fall Guys, Among Us)
These two games came out of nowhere. But, with excellent marketing, they took over Twitch with really big streamers playing it day after day. Naturally, as soon as they become available to the public absolutely everyone started playing it. And why shouldn’t they, both are social games that are casual, lighthearted fun. Fall Guys is a bit more competitive, while Among Us is the best party game for you and your friends. Fall Guys sold insanely well quite fast, with 10 million copies sold 8 months after release.
Phasmophobia isn’t in the top 10 most profitable games of 2020 list, but it is in the top 20. It’s another game that came out of nowhere and took the gaming world by storm.
Big new and recent releases (DOOM ETERNAL, PUBG, Monster Hunter World, Red Dead Redemption 2, Rainbow Six Siege)
Doom Eternal had 100,000 concurrent players as soon as it launched. We all knew Doom Eternal would be an outstanding sequel, and it’s a game I’ve covered many times before and after its release.
PUBG is the first battle royale that became popular. Gritty, slow, and packed with adrenaline. It’s a shooter with a lot of tactical depth, and now it has A.I. enemies that hunt you down. We also have an upcoming horror game set in the PUBG universe, which is real and I did not make that up.
The last shooter in this category is Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft’s insanely brutal tactical shooter with an insane skill ceiling. It’s in a lane in its own when it comes to shooters, and it lets you make holes in walls and then stick your gun through that hole so you can put holes in the enemy. Quite an exquisite shooter, there aren’t many like it.
Now, Monster Hunter World and Red Dead Redemption 2. In one you hunt down huge monsters in a big world. In the other, you hunt down humans and (sometimes) animals. Both are excellent titles. Monster Hunter World excels when it comes to combat, encounter design, progression, and difficulty. Red Dead Redemption 2 is just an enormous open-world game made by masters of their craft.
Free-to-play games
Three of the most financially successful games on Steam in 2020 are free-to-play. I wonder how much Genshin Impact made. I’m positive it would be here on this list if the game were on Steam. Anyhow, Dota 2, Destiny 2, CS: GO. Three games that you can play and enjoy without spending a dime.
Dota 2 is Valve’s MOBA. You can buy battle passes, various cosmetics for your in-game heroes, voice packs, etc.
CS: GO is Valve’s team-based shooter. It follows the same path as Dota 2 when it comes to in-game cosmetics. As we can clearly see, Valve knows how to do the free-to-play model. Maybe we can even say that Valve perfected it?
Anyhow, we also have Destiny 2. Bungie’s looter-shooter obviously made the right move when it switched to a free-to-play model. And Bungie made a superb decision when they split off from Activision. Their decisions have been well thought out, as we see that Destiny 2 is making quite a lot of bank.
The biggest release of 2020, aka the mess that is Cyberpunk 2077
Ah, my dear, dear Cyberpunk 2077. I was quite excited to play CDPR’s latest game. However, the hype, the delays, the bugs at launch. All these issues killed my hype and my enjoyment of the game. This is still the biggest launch of 2020, but not for the right reasons. But with all of that, the game still sold 13 million copies. And now CDPR is getting sued because they lied about the game’s performance on last-gen consoles. It’s crazy, and we also shouldn’t forget that we’re getting a standalone Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer title sometime in the future.
GTA V
For some reason, this 5-year old open-world game is still selling like hotcakes. How? Guess Rockstar Games know how to make a classic that sells even after it’s been out for half a decade. GTA Online is probably the reason for this, as the online version of this game is regularly updated even today. I guess even 10 years from now we can expect to see GTA V on the list of most profitable games on Steam.
Were you surprised by the games on this list? If you were, do share why. All your questions and thoughts should be posted in the comments section down below!
