Steam, the world's largest digital PC games platform, have released their annual charts of the biggest games of year. The 2017 data shows that the UK games industry continues to lead on a global marketplace that represents an estimated base of over 150m active lifetime users and has now reached reached peaks of 18.5m concurrent users, as reported today.
Of Steam's top 100 games by gross revenue, 15 were UK-made (or games partly made in the UK), including two of the top-of-the-top "platinum" tier, one in the gold tier and four in silver. Although no indication is given how these categories are determined, the top tier includes the likes of 'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds', which now lists over 27.8m owners sinces its launch in Early Access back in March 2017, according to Steamspy.
Similarly in the top 92 games by peak simultaneous players list, 14 (15.2%) were games made or partly made in the UK. Rockstar's perennial 'Grand Theft Auto V' led the way for the UK in the top "over 100k simultaneous players" tier. Six games from the UK (or 40%) featured in the the second "over 50k players" tier, including a double showing from Sports Interactive with both 'Football Manager 2017' and 'Football Manager 2018'.
This year, for the first time Steam have produced a top 100 VR games by gross revenue, again showing good representation for the UK's leading VR industry with 11 games making the grade. The one game partly made in the UK reached the platinum tier, another UK-made game featured in the gold and four UK games achieved silver.
The UK's strong representation in these lists shows the continued strength of our games industry in a highly competitive international marketplace and we look forward to another year of similar success in 2018.
See the full lists of the UK games that made Steam's top lists below. If there's any we've missed, please contact Luke.
Higest Grossing
Platinum
- Grand Theft Auto V - Rockstar North
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands - Ubisoft (partly made at Ubisoft Reflection)
Gold
- Total War: Warhammer - Creative Assembly / Feral Interactive
Silver
- Rust - Facepunch Studios
- Planet Coaster - Frontier Developments
- Total War: Warhammer II - Creative Assembly
- Sniper Elite 4 - Rebellion
Bronze
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III - Relic Entertainment / Feral Interactive (Mac / Linux ports in UK)
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice - Ninja Theory
- Football Manager 2018 - Sports Interactive
- Paladins - Hi-Rez Studios (Brighton)
- Football Manager 2017 - Sports Interactive
- Elite Dangerous - Frontier Developments
- Garry’s Mod - Facepunch Studios
- Train Simulator - Dovetail Games
Most Played
Over 100k Simultaneous Players
- Grand Theft Auto V - Rockstar North
Over 50k Simultaneous Players
- Garry’s Mod - Facepunch Studios
- Rust - Facepunch Studio
- Paladins - Hi-Rez Studios (Brighton)
- Total War: Warhammer II - Creative Assembly
- Football Manager 2017 - Sports Interactive
- Football Manager 2018 - Sports Interactive
Over 25k Simultaneous Players
- Total War: Warhammer - Creative Assembly / Feral Interactive
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands - Ubisoft (partly made at Ubisoft Reflection)
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III - Relic Entertainment / Feral Interactive (Mac / Linux ports in UK)
Over 15k Simultaneous Players
- Total War: ROME II - Creative Assembly
- Starbound - Chucklefish
- No Man's Sky - Hello Games
- Deceit - Automaton
Highest Grossing VR
Platinum
- Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades - RUST INC. (partly based in UK)
Gold
- Batman Arkham VR - Rocksteady Studios
Silver
- Iron Wolf VR - Ionized Studios
- Sports Bar VR - Cherry Pop Games
- A Chair In A Room - Wolf & Wood Interactive Ltd
- L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files - Rockstar Games
Bronze
- Mass Exodus - Polymerse
- Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality - Bossa Studios
- Nature Treks VR - John Carline
- Battlezone - Rebellion
- Sparc - CCP (Newcastle)