With January already on the way out Valve has provided us more information about what was successful in December 2021 and, as it turns out, Early Access titles were rather popular.
“…about half of the games on December’s Top Release list either made their debuts into Early Access or graduated from it. The open-world RPG Sands of Salzaar and the cooperative shooter GTFO both launched out of Early Access after much development during 2021. And as if sensing an Early Access void in those genres, Wartales and Ready or Not launched into their own Early Access journeys for 2022,” reads an announcement.
The announcement also points out that games that participated in the various Next Fest events have turned interest from it into sales. With another Next Fest on the way in February, developers and publishers are once again encouraged to partake.
The lists of top releases can be found below. Valve compiles the lists of the paid games by revenue generated within the first two weeks of launch. For the free games these are instead judged by unique players joined since launch.
Some caveats are needed here as Century: Age of Ashes, a free game, appears in the regular paid top releases list. This is because it also has paid options right on the Steam storefront, which qualifies it for both of these classifications.
Valve provides these lists in a random order as to conceal some information about the success of these games, but we’ve put them in alphabetical order for ease of reading.
Top 20 releases
- After the Fall – Launch Edition
- ANVIL
- Century: Age of Ashes
- Chorus
- DYNASTY WARRIORS 9 Empires
- Fights in Tight Spaces
- Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach
- GTFO
- ICARUS
- Karryn’s Prison
- Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX
- Propnight
- Ready or Not
- Rune Factory 4 Special
- Sands of Salzaar
- Shadow Tactics: Aiko’s Choice
- Thunder Tier One
- Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts
- Wartales
- WorldBox – God Simulator
Top free-to-play
- Arena of Kings
- Babble Royale
- Bro Falls
- Century: Age of Ashes
- Toram Online
Top DLC
- Destiny 2: Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack
- FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker
- Oxygen Not Included – Spaced Out!
- Planet Zoo: Europe Pack
- theHunter: Call of the Wild – Mississippi Acres Preserve
