Submitted 1 month ago by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
On Steamcharts, Counterstrike has been the #1 game on Steam every single day I have EVER looked at this site, for at least 3 years now. This top 10 has basically been the same for years… I don’t get it. Do people just not play anything else?
Dota, Rust, PUBG, GTA V, Call of Duty, Apex… Admittedly, Satisfactory is new to the top 10. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege FINALLY fell out of the top 10, adn so did Destiny 2.
It just feels like it never changes, which is crazy… what happened?
Those games are played by a demographic that only plays that game, or close enough. They’d consider themselves a Dota player before they consider themselves a video game player in general. These games aren’t played exclusively by that type of person, but a large part of their audience is the type of player who just plays that game. I’m having trouble digging it up, but the person who created Steamspy a number of years ago, before privacy laws made public profiles opt-in and interfered with its ability to collect data, found that the majority of Steam accounts only had a single game in their libraries.
That kinda explains the dissciation gamers and game makers (studio,publisher etc ) have with each other today. And the publishers continuus trying at live service games. I imagine similar thing is happening with consoles. I personaly knew it was a thing with FIFA but i never knew it was so widespread ( fifa and sports game are kinda special or at least i thought they were ). Maybe those pepole bought one game a year additionaly sometimes if it was aired often enough as ad on tv.
That actually explains so much shit we see today , like online subcsriptions on PlayStation and xbox. If the majority ( or large enough minority ) will play one game only making them pay for online is a goddam goldmine. F* i would probably do it if was ceo of PlayStation and actually knew the stats ( and Obviusly if they were favorable ).
20 years ago, we paid for online because it was better than what you got for free on PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo. Now an online subscription is probably one of several reasons that people are moving to PC.
I’m having trouble digging it up, but the person who created Steamspy a number of years ago, before privacy laws made public profiles opt-in and interfered with its ability to collect data, found that the majority of Steam accounts only had a single game in their libraries.
A lot of those are going to be alts people made to evade game/server bans or smurf.
I may or may not have made 10 accounts that only had Garry’s Mod on them circa 2010.
That may be true, but you can also see, for instance, that there are a ton of Chinese users who only play Dota 2 or only play PUBG. You’ll see the percentage of Simplified Chinese users ebb and flow with a similar cadence to just those two games.
I’d consider accounts with only a single game most likely to be bot or cheater accounts. I wonder what the percentage would be.
People like that CS doesn’t change. It just eventually gets visual upgrades with new engine versions. You can hop on CS, and know the exact game play you’re going to get.
Also, custom CS servers for extremely different game play are a thing.
Dropping in and not having to get back up to speed with a game has become more important to my gaming life than I wish it was. I don’t have time to change it. Even minimal-story games like Valheim or Elite: Dangerous have become too cumbersome because I have to spend a bunch of time figuring out what I did last, what I need to gather, and what I need to build to progress. I can either go mine/sail iron in Valheim, I can hope my pirate hunter ship and pirate activity are close to where I last docked… Or I can just play some basic game and take 5 minutes to get up to speed instead of spending the first 45 minutes recalibrating my memory. It makes a difference when you might only play 3 times a week and have less than 2 hours left. I’m hoping next year goes better, but for now, it’s battle Royale, team match, or racing games.
Obviously, there’s a massive competitive attractiveness for some people to games like PUBG and CS as well. But it’s not all trigger-finger addicts.
E:D doesn’t really have them, but valheim and other information heavy games tend to have writeable signs. Since early modded minecraft, I have utilized these signs to communicate with my future self; writing down what I’m doing at the time and what my major goals are before logging off for the night is just part of my gaming routine now. Takes me a few seconds of reading to trigger the flow of action again. When games don’t have signs, I use a notepad .txt file to track what I was up to, or failing that I’ll save a note in my phone.
I would never have finished factorio or satisfactory without text files and signage. I would never have finished most large minecraft modpacks without signage. Organization skills rock.
Because Fortnite isn’t on Steam.
Because Fortnite isn’t on Steam. Super sure if it was, it would have usurped CS for the top spot.
I actually do really enjoy Fortnite, but according to their in-game stats, it’s hit a lull. The other one is minecraft… idk what people do in that game though. Never tried it haha. just seeking something fun and it’s just the same games every single month…
Minecraft is so moddable, most people playing Minecraft might actually just be playing another game built inside Minecraft lol
These games have infinite replay value and people like them. That’s all a top ranking game is. Many have tried to replicate these successes and failed (in recent memory, Concord). There have been a huge number of good games coming out too. But they’re not somthing you put 2,000 hours into with your friends.
because they run on everything and are free
You can play something like dota with people on a very basic computer and okayish connection. You’ll always find matches too.
CS is extremely popular outside of North America (also in NA). It’s basically been played nonstop with an ever growing fanbase since 1998. The rest of the games are all multiplayer titles with competitive ranking systems. Apex and Dota are free.
Most of them are good games the others are played by people who only play those games
CS is like chess. Perfect and timeless. 6000 hours over 12 years of non-stop queueing competitive
*Checkers
Counter Strike Source was like chess if you ask me. In CS GO they added this gambling system, which made the game less attractive for me
gambling? interesting. i just play I don’t know where my mom’s money is
All the games you listed like PUBG and GTA V are more like fads. Sure some lasted longer than others but their popularity dies down. Games like Counter Strike are considered to be more of classics. Especially to the older generation of gamers who grew up on them. These are games that are able to stand the test of time.
GTA V is a fad? That game is over a decade old dude
And pubg isn’t exactly the latest thing anymore either. It came out in 2017.
CS:GO is around the same age with much more players on average. GTA V’s player count tends to fluctuate based on what I’ve seen.
it’s a really good game, and is heavily supported by Valve to keep it good
cheating seems like an issue but i imagine that’s always been the case
The games that sit at the top of the player counts are almost always multiplayer competitive games. In a lot of ways, there’s been nearly 0 movement in the space at all since covid. The same games are still right there at the top because no new massively multiplayer game has released to top them. FPS players play CoD, Apex, Fortnite and Pubg, Dota is massive in Asian countries, GTA V has a huge cult following (check out its twitch category).
Satisfactory being top 10 is an outlier rather than the norm, being a single player game.
I agree with the other commenter who said that players of these games consider themselves players of Apex/CoD/Pubg before they consider themselves overall gamers. That’s the case with me now, and I rarely launch anything outside of CoD or Apex as I have little to no interest in single player games.
Satisfactory isn’t massively multiplayer but it is coop up to 4 players, been enjoying it with my brother since 1.0 release
CS probably has some sort of skin money-laundering bots in it. I would see it more as a financial vector and less of a game if that were true.
Depends on how you look at it. CS is the only thing I’ve been playing after years of gaming and I think it will stay that way due to the simplicity and the familiarity of the game.
No one has topped them yet.
Oh? Warframe is finally off the top 10?
I wouldn’t know. I’ve never played it. It’s not really my kind of game
It spent many years around spot 7. It has since fallen off.
Add Banana too in Top 10 xD.
Yes, not only many people still play the same games for 10 years, but also spend most of their gaming time in them. There’s a reason why a new live service game is both a gold mine and also incredibly difficult to stick.
Circlejerks.
When I learned about TacticalOps and Infiltration I started to not understand why people keep playing CS while there are superior games out there. Something is wrong with this world.
Is there a way to sort steamcharts by total hours played? Im kinda curious about that stat but i can seem to find a way to sort it on site.
eezeebee@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
It’s free to play, there’s a huge market for skins, and some gambling addiction to go with it. The perfect storm.
Alk@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s also a very solid game. (the same can’t be said for every game on that list but it’s true for many of them)
CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 1 month ago
(A very solid game that openly allows cheating and does little to ensure fair competition)