Most played games on Steam 2024, by average players per hour

First released in September 2023, Counter-Strike 2 was the most popular game on the PC gaming platform Steam during 2024. The first-person shooter averaged around 685,000 players per hour. Dota 2 was ranked second, while action RPG game Path of Exile 2 was ranked third, with over 303,000 thousand average hourly players during the measured period.

Counter-Strike at the top - or at least close to it

Counter-Strike 2 was in third place among the Steam games based on peak number of concurrent players on the online gaming platform in 2023. The game reached 1.7 million concurrent players at its peak in 2024. The top spot was claimed by Black Myth: Wukong, with over 2.4 peak concurrent players. Second-ranked action-adventure Palworld accumulated 2.1 million peak concurrent players. Most of the top games on Steam have been around for the better part of a decade — in fact, Black Myth: Wukong, Palworld, Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals are the only titles released in 2024 to make the top list. All other games in the ranking have been released within the last few years and have managed to accumulate a loyal player base.

Steam undisputed number one

When you think of PC gaming, you automatically think of Steam. The platform, developed by Valve Corporation, had humble beginnings as a digital distribution platform for Valve to provide updates for its games. Fast-forward a few years and Steam released over 15,000 games in 2024 alone and is showing little signs of slowing down. In 2023, the peak concurrent player count on the platform nearly reached 33 million for the first time, a significant increase from six million in 2012. It seems that while Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft battle it out for console supremacy, Steam remains the undisputed king of PC gaming.