We're over a month into the new year, 2025 is off to the races, and players around the world will start to have a whole new swath of games to play. Whether they're new releases to kick off the year, or they're new pick-ups from the holiday season, surely there will be a new, interesting crop of games at the top of Steam's charts, right?

Well, in some cases, yes. Though when it comes to most played games, the fact of the matter is that there can be plenty of main-stays that don't shift very often. But that doesn't make looking at the top 8 most played games on Steam in the last month according to Steam Charts any less interesting. Especially when you see games break through.

8 Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

New kid on the block.

The long-awaited medieval RPG sequel from developer Warhorse Studios, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II finally launched earlier this month, and its launch numbers have been strong enough to let it just make this list.

Now, of course, the trouble is staying at this level or at least close to it, something that is almost guaranteed to not happen with most single-player games. Both players and critics seem to love it though, so perhaps it'll remain near the top of Steam's player charts for a while longer.

7 Naraka: Bladepoint

Your melee-focused battle royale.

When Naraka: Bladepoint arrived on the scene in 2021, people were skeptical in the way that everyone is, when it comes to a new free-to-play, live-service game trying to win players' attention. Especially if it's also a battle royale game on top of all that.

However, developer 24 Entertainment and its publisher NetEase have been able to keep players coming back, because Naraka: Bladepoint remains a unique experience in a crowded playing field. It's a melee-focused battle royale, and 24 Entertainment is able to make more brawling-focused gameplay work on big maps, thanks to the quick-pace of the fights and the flair with which they pop-off.

6 Rust

The only aim is to survive.

For a game where everything wants you to die, Rust has plenty of players that seem to live in its world. A survival game where no one and nothing can be trusted, Rust has captured players for more than a decade now, even though it didn't fully release out of early access until 2018.

It's a harsh game that has been able to find an audience, and one that continues to grow, after developer Facepunch Studios has put in the work to evolve Rust over the years alongside feedback from players. If you're a fan of survival games at all, then this multiplayer experience isn't one you should miss. There's a reason why it's consistently near the top of most played charts.

  • Rust (Buy on Steam)

5 Path of Exile 2

Time to go beyond Diablo.

Developer Grinding Gear Games calls Path of Exile 2 a "next generation action RPG," and while that could just be referring to the hardware it is being made for, it wouldn't be wrong to apply that phrase to Path of Exile 2 being a new era for the genre.

If you've only ever played Diablo before, and haven't tried PoE before, then it's definitely worth a shot. Grinding Gear Games seems to be outdoing Blizzard in its own genre, and players have clearly been responding to that by continuing to swarm to PoE2 in the hundreds of thousands following its launch late last year.

4 Marvel Rivals

Step aside, Overwatch.

Just like how Path of Exile 2 seems to be snapping up all the players that were getting bored with Diablo IV, it looks like Marvel Rivals has scooped up all the bored Overwatch players.

Since Overwatch blew up in 2016, plenty of game studios have tried to make a bigger, better version of Blizzard's hero shooter. Well, NetEase was the first to strike a deal that let them iterate on what Blizzard did, and slap Marvel characters on to it, for a big, recognizable cultural touchstone. Add to the fatigue Overwatch fans were already feeling, and the number of ways in which Blizzard ticked fans off, and it's the perfect storm for Rivals to come in, and sweep away Overwatch's player base.

In fairness, it did launch late last year, and we're still in the game's opening months. So while it's definitely jumped a few hurdles live service games struggle with in their early days, it's not out of the woods yet. It'll be more interesting to see how Rivals is doing a full year from now.

3 DOTA 2

One battlefield, infinite potential.

Okay, now we're really getting towards the spots on this list that almost never change. Maybe they just swap around with each other, but they're almost never pushed out of the top three. DOTA 2 is one of the most played games on Steam, ever. Valve even claims that it is the most played game on the DOTA 2 Steam page.

A massive multiplayer experience that has been around for over a decade now, there's an infinite well of gameplay and fun to be had within DOTA 2. Millions of players still check in with this game every day, and if you're into MOBA's, then you owe it to yourself to find out what all the fuss is about with DOTA 2.

2 PUBG: Battlegrounds

The OG is still kickin'

The game that is credited with really kicking off the success of battle royale titles, PUBG: Battlegrounds or Player Unknown's Battlegrounds is very much still alive and kicking a ball. Its player counts remain sky-high, as it has continued to evolve with the rest of the battle royale genre.

Of course, there is a conversation that can be had, as to whether it would be so high on this list, if Fortnite were available on Steam, and not just through the Epic Games Store. Good for PUBG we're just looking at Steam numbers today.

1 Counter-Strike 2

Its reign continues.

The constant, the game that pretty much every FPS esport player starts with, and the one that's been around (at least in its original version) for years, Counter-Strike 2 is still one of the top-played games on Steam.

While DOTA 2 and PUBG might swap their spots, Counter-Strike 2, and Counter-Strike before it, keep the top spot with a split of hundreds of thousands of players between it and PUBG or DOTA 2. Clearly, gamers cannot get enough of a good thing.

The next king could arrive at any point.

As much as some of these games are consistently near the top charts regarding what people are playing, the reality still is that nothing is guaranteed. Marvel Rivals is an excellent recent example of a new game coming to shake things up.

It's always interesting to look at what people are playing, though it's especially exciting when the signs of a potential regime shift appear. Who knows when the next one will be, but it could happen at any moment.

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