The first month of the new decade is in the books, and with that we'll be looking at the top 20 games released in January 2020. As a reminder, we measure monthly top releases by looking at revenue generated during the first two weeks after launch. We'll also be featuring the top 5 free-to-play releases, measured by the total number of unique players acquired during their two-week launch windows. Scroll down to view the lists or check out this handy sale page.

If you've followed our previous posts, you know that we like to highlight the developers who are creating these awesome products. Every month, it's remarkable to see how diverse the representation of developers is from around the world. In the past six months alone, top releases were developed in more than 30 different countries across six continents. This diversity ensures that no matter where players live, it's easy to find games with familiar language use, regional pop culture references, local themes & settings and all sorts of other variety that simply wouldn't exist if developers were all from one region. January's new releases brought a surprising amount of content from one region in particular. More than half of January's top releases were developed in Asia, with eight titles coming from Japanese development teams.

The prevalence of Asian products in January likely comes from a huge variety of factors: change in geographical spending, impact of the Lunar New Year holiday, differences in developer release schedules, and certainly a bit of coincidence. The most exciting part of this surge comes when looking at the products themselves. Anime themes and JRPG elements often perform well with players on Steam, and January included six products from classic anime franchises - Dragon Ball Z, Atelier (3), Utawarerumono and Super Robot Wars. Another exciting thing about these top titles was that almost half of them launched without English localization for either audio or text. Not too long ago, including English support at launch was a requirement for success on Steam. English-speakers are still a huge part of Steam's audience, but the success of January's top releases reinforces the fact that now, more than ever, Steam players come from all over the world and will support a huge variety of language options.

One trend that didn't change this month is that of new developers finding success when bringing their first product to Steam. We're excited to welcome 10 development teams on this month's list who are launching their very first product on Steam. Some of these teams have worked together for years, bringing games to other devices or platforms, while others are working together for the first time. Congratulations go out to AQUAPLUS, Fantastic Passion, Ghostpie Studio, 汉家松鼠 Han-Squirrel Studio, Pyro Studios, Scavengers Studio, Skookum Arts, Soccer Manager Ltd., Steel Sky Productions, Studio 8 & Yippee! Entertainment. 

Finally, it's not very often that we get the opportunity to take a look back at an entire decade and reflect on how much has changed. For those who are nostalgic, curious or even looking for a classic game to explore, we thought we'd look at the top games debuting in January 2010 (sorted by release date). The list for January 2010 is quite different from our normal format, as it contains just 11 games, which happens to be every single game that released on Steam that month. Of these 11 games, only three of them would have charted on today’s Top 20.

Wings of Prey
Zero Gear
Gothic II: Gold Edition
Greed: Black Border
Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy
Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000
Dark Void
Bob Came in Pieces
Hotel Giant 2
Mass Effect 2
Toki Tori


Here is the list of January's top releases ordered by release date (we've organized this list on a sale page too):


部落与弯刀 / Sands of Salzaar
汉家松鼠 Han-Squirrel Studio (China)


港詭實錄 / Paranormal HK
Ghostpie Studio (China)


SUPER ROBOT WARS X
B.B.STUDIO CO.,LTD. (Japan)


GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath
Game in a Bottle (Hungary)


Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX
KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. (Japan)


Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky DX
KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. (Japan)


Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX
KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. (Japan)


some some convenience store 썸썸 편의점
TALESSHOP Co., Ltd. (Republic of Korea)


DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT
CyberConnect2 Co. Ltd. (Japan)


ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS XIV
KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. (Japan)


DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game
NASPAPA GAMES (Japan)


Temtem
Crema (Spain)


Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception
AQUAPLUS (Japan)


The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
Skydance Interactive (US)


Commandos 2 - HD Remaster
Yippee! Entertainment (UK) Pyro Studios (Spain)


Warhammer Underworlds: Online
Steel Sky Productions (Australia)


Coffee Talk
Toge Productions (Indonesia)


The Pedestrian
Skookum Arts (US)


Astellia
Studio 8 (Republic of Korea)


Not For Broadcast
NotGames (UK)

--



Darwin Project
Scavengers Studio (Canada)


Coloring Game 2
L. Stotch (Russia)


Soviet Jump Game
Fantastic Passion (US)


Grim Clicker
EvilCharm Games (Russia)


Soccer Manager 2020
Soccer Manager Ltd. (UK)

--

If you're curious about previous months, here are more Top Release lists:

• The Top Releases of May
  
• The Top Releases of June
  
• The Top Releases of July
  
• The Top Releases of August
  
• The Top Releases of September
  
• The Top Releases of October
  
• The Top Releases of November
  
• The Top Releases of December

Cheers!
-The Steam Team

Shop in The Steam Lunar New Year Sale, where you’ll discover popular featured titles plus recommendations tailored just for you. Save on thousands of titles, now through January 27th at 10 am Pacific.

In celebration of the New Year, follow the origin story of the Zodiac as you open a new gift from the Emperor each day of the sale. Daily red envelopes feature Year of the Rat Tokens, good toward seasonal items available exclusively in The Lunar New Year Night Market. Plus, earn more tokens when you shop in the Lunar New Year sale!

Then, explore The Night Market, teeming with all-new seasonal goods such as animated Profile Backgrounds, Mini-Profile Backgrounds, Chat Room Effects, Chat Stickers, and more! Plus, save during the Lunar New Year Sale when you purchase the Lunar New Year Coupon, good for use throughout the sale.


Celebrate now at https://store.steampowered.com/sale/lunarnewyear2020 !

This month we'll be looking at the final top release list of the 2010s. These are the top products released in December 2019, as measured by revenue generated during the first two weeks after their launch. We also included the top 5 most popular free-to-play releases, measured by total unique player count for the two weeks following release.

With each month's top release list, we enjoy highlighting metadata about developers. For example, this month we have products coming from developers in 13 different countries (check below for specific countries). Beyond the fun that comes with checking the map for our favorite games, this helps illustrate the diversity of content makers who are bringing products to Steam. These developers have their own regional insights and experiences that allow them to incorporate unique themes, cultural elements and gaming mechanics to give an amazing amount of choice to Steam players.

Another point worth mentioning is the number of teams bringing a product to Steam for the first time. This month stuck out to us again, with almost half of the products coming from development teams who haven't yet been on Steam. We want to welcome these teams that are new to Steam: 10 Chambers Collective, A44, Elastic Games, Kozhakov, INFERNA LIMITED, Beawesome Games, Simogo, Bankroll Studios, Wiple Games, and HR Innoways

The studios represented each month tell a worthwhile story, but what about the games themselves - elements like game mechanics, themes, visual styles and genres. With these factors often represented in the form of user tags, we can actually look at the top three tags applied to the games on this month's list to get an idea of what elements they share, along with elements that stand alone.

The first thing we noticed this month is that only a handful of tags are applied to many games on the list: Action (9 games), Adventure (9), RPG (7), Indie (6) and Casual (6). The high frequency of these tags makes sense, as they represent broad groupings that are fairly generic and appear the most often on Steam. These tags provide useful high level groupings, but they aren't terribly good at illustrating specifics. When we look at the rest of the top three tags applied to each game, the frequency is drastically reduced, with 23 unique tags only appearing on a single game. Examples include: Great Soundtrack, Dragons, Co-op, Rhythm, Souls-like, Physics, Detective, Vampire and more. Unlike the highest-frequency tags, these are more likely to give specific insights about what makes each game unique. With millions of players on Steam coming from every imaginable region and background, the volume of unique tags echoes the huge variety of preferences that exist throughout the community. These tags also validate the creativity and perception of developers, who are able to find success each month by combining familiar shared themes with unique one-off elements.

If you enjoy the story that tags reveal and want to explore them in even greater detail, we recommend a visit to our Steam Labs. Experiments 004 & 005 both leverage tags to help narrow down the catalog in creative new ways. If you haven't tried yet, give it a shot and let us know what you think!

Here is the list of December's top releases ordered by release date (we've organized this list on a sale page too):


Halo: The Master Chief Collection
343 Industries, Splash Damage, Ruffian Games and Bungie (US)


Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem
HeR Interactive, Inc. (US)


Day of Dragons
Beawesome Games (US)


Darksiders Genesis
Airship Syndicate (US)


Red Dead Redemption 2
Rockstar Games (US)


Endless World Idle RPG
Radiance Games (China)


Nostos
NetEase Games (China)


Ashen
A44 (New Zealand)


GTFO
10 Chambers Collective (Sweden)


BONEWORKS
Stress Level Zero (US)


DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS™ 2
Square Enix, KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. (Japan)


Hades
Supergiant Games (US)


Hurtworld
Bankroll Studios (Australia)


Last Year
Elastic Games (Canada)


Transport Fever 2
Urban Games (Switzerland)


Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
Draw Distance (Poland)


Sayonara Wild Hearts
Simogo (Sweden)


Winter Resort Simulator
HR Innoways (Austria)


DJMAX RESPECT V
NEOWIZ (Republic of Korea)


VR Paradise
Totem Entertainment (France)

--



Ylands
Bohemia Interactive (Czech Republic)


Paunch
Kozhakov (Russia)


Ironsight
Wiple Games (Republic of Korea)


Endless World Idle RPG
Radiance Games (China)


Inferna
INFERNA LIMITED (Switzerland)

--

If you're curious about previous months, here are more Top Release lists:

• The Top Releases of May
  
• The Top Releases of June
  
• The Top Releases of July
  
• The Top Releases of August
  
• The Top Releases of September
  
• The Top Releases of October
  
• The Top Releases of November

Cheers!
-The Steam Team

We are excited to announce The 2019 Steam Awards Winners! These are the games and developers you, the Steam Community, voted as your favorites of 2019.

With eight categories there were a lot of tough decisions to be made; which is why we let you, our awesome community, do it! Not only are you a trustworthy, passionate bunch with excellent taste, but also, we can’t trust ourselves to pick a favorite. We truly love them all!

With this year's awards, we've asked you to focus your sights on titles released in the last twelve months. We're pleased to present the best of 2019's New Releases, plus your selection for the Labor of Love Award: the best game updated this year.

So without further ado, 🥁🥁🥁: Here are your winners of The 2019 Steam Awards! Congratulations to all!

Hello to my favorite Steamville residents! Yes, even you, my little snowman thieves. It’s Mayor Carol, here to remind you that the 13th annual Steam Winter Sale will be coming to a close at 10am Pacific on January 2nd.

And unlike what happened at the end of our Town Council’s karaoke performance of Jingle Bell Rock, the people of Steamville are enthusiastically chanting “Encore, Encore!” for the Winter Sale. So featured for these final two days of the sale, check out our Top Sellers from the event.

Now’s also a great time to check your Festivity Token balance. Hoarding will get you nowhere, my dears! You must spend them in our Holiday Market before they expire at the end of the sale!

Speaking of hoarding: In case anyone was so wrapped up in the Market they missed it, we announced earlier that Animated Stickers and Consumable Chat Effects no longer expire, so save away and use them whenever you like!

Cheers to you all, and thank you for joining me in yet another festive celebration in Steamville!

Happy New Year,
Mayor Carol

P.S. While I appreciate the return of the snowman to the grounds of Town Hall, the carrot was in a rather… questionable place. Steamville is always home to a good time, but please, let's keep it family-friendly.

Today is the last day to cast your vote in The 2019 Steam Awards! Be sure to cast your votes by December 31st, 9am Pacific, then check back at 10am Pacific for the winners' reveal!

Since the holidays can be stressful, with your family driving you crazy to love them even more, think of this as one final way to show your loved ones some appreciation! Although in this case, by “loved ones,” we mean the top new or updated Steam games you loved the most in 2019.

Vote now in all eight categories! Then sit back, relax, and await the big reveal of the winners of The 2019 Steam Awards tomorrow at 10am Pacific. Then, go take that long winter’s nap you’ve clearly earned, and we’ll see you for more Steam fun in 2020!

From now ‘til January 2nd @ 10am PST, snap up great deals on hundreds of popular VR titles.

From now ‘til January 2nd @ 10am PST, snap up deals on hundreds of your favorite local multiplayer titles - now available for sharing with friends online via Remote Play Together!

Yesterday we revealed the Selling and Top Played games of 2019 across all of Steam, and today we're continuing the look back at 2019 by highlighting some of the best games that you can play with a controller.

Whether you like to play from your couch or lean way back in your chair, there are a lot of great games on Steam that can be played with any one of hundreds of different controller models, including Xbox or Playstation controllers you might have laying around. Nearly any kind of input device with a USB plug at the end (and many without) can be used to play some of the best games on Steam. Here's a guide for where to start.

To come up with this list, we generated a list of the top 100 games with the highest peak number of concurrent players using a controller. Then we divided that list up into various common controller-friendly genres so you can more easily find the kind of game you might be looking for.



https://store.steampowered.com/sale/controller_games_2019

With the year almost at an end, we're unveiling our Best of 2019 lists. In keeping with tradition, we've built lists with the same themes as last year - Top Sellers, Top New Releases, Top Selling VR Titles, Top Early Access Grads and Most Played Games.



This list is as self-explanatory as it sounds - a look at games earning the most revenue in 2019. When measuring revenue, we look at game sales, in-game transactions and DLC associated with the game in question.

You'll probably notice some familiar games that were in previous year's lists, along with newcomers that have climbed their way to the top. Where did your favorite game end up this year?

Here's the Top Selling Games of 2019


This list a compilation of our monthly top release lists that were created over the course of 2019. We've also listed the overall top 12 game releases of 2019. We measure top releases by looking at a game's total revenue generated during the first two weeks after its release.

Every single month includes a surprising amount of representation from different genres, gameplay mechanisms and themes. Which month was your favorite?

Here's the Top New Releases of 2019


VR continued to grow in 2019, with over 600 new VR-only titles released over the course of the year. Many other games added VR support, along with unique VR-only experiences built for several fan-favorite franchises. This list showcases the best selling VR-only titles of 2019.

To focus on the growth of VR this year, we've also listed the top 20 VR-only games released in 2019. These products are measured by the revenue they generated during the first two weeks after release.

Here's the Top Selling VR Games of 2019


Early Access represents a unique model of development that incorporates player feedback throughout the course of the game's development to its launch.

This list recognizes games that have built strong Early Access communities and transitioned into commercially successful releases during 2019. These are measured by revenue earned during 2019 (during Early Access and after full release).

Here's the Top Early Access Grads of 2019


While the other lists are based on commercial success, our Most Played list highlights games based solely on player count. The Most Played Games list includes any game that had more than 15,000 simultaneous players at some point during 2019. In order to highlight games that have built large player bases, we've excluded brief spikes in player counts due to things like giveaways and free weekends.

Here's the Most Played Games of 2019


We don't disclose specific revenue information for these lists, but top sellers are broken into four categories in order to give you an idea of how they placed. The games within each band are sorted randomly:

Platinum: 1st - 12th Top Seller
Gold: 13th - 24th Top Seller
Silver: 25th - 40th Top Seller
Bronze: 41st - 100th Top Seller

Thanks for checking out these lists. After all, they were built by everyone who plays games on Steam!

Also, don't forget to check out the Steam Winter Sale, on now until January 2nd. Many of the titles in the lists above are discounted, and these lists are a great way to browse games that players loved in 2019.

-The Steam Team