2025 feels like a bit of a tipping point for gaming. As bigger studios continue to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:cancel proj🗹ects and lay off talented developers, or see their 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:trend-chasing games fail, smaller games have come to the limelight. Indie titles like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Schedule 1, R.E.P.O., and Peak have all garnered massive audiences, while games from smaller studios, such as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, have achieved critical acclaim, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:breaking multip🍒le records in🍃 the process.
A Fresh Perspective: Here's What Other Turn-Based Games Can Learn From Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Expedition 33 might have cracked the formula.
With player and development habits shifting, as 2025 reaches its halfway point, we've looked at the games with the highest player counts on Steam, and have found t🌱hat 40 percent of the top 20 are either indie or double-A.
Players Are Seemingly Yearning For Smaller Titles, Supporting Indies And Smaller Studios In The Process
According to our data (pulled from ), eight of this year's top 20 games, sorted by pea🔯k concurrent player count, have come from indie studios or🗹 can be classified as "double-A".
In the TikTok and short-form video era, a trend has emerged of smaller, more clippable games going viral, which has undoubtedly contributed to this year's charts. We saw it previously with games like Content Warning🥀 and Chained Together, and that trend has continued this year, with Schedule I and R.E.P.O. occupying two of the top three spots, and Peak falling just outside the top ten. While these games typically have a shorter shelf-life, as they're quickly replaced by the next viral hit, they're very much the definition of🧸 indie.
Idle game Bongo Cat to🌊ok the sixth spot this y𓄧ear, and a title with "Overwhelmingly Positive" Steam reviews, , came in at 19th.
While 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Rematch all had slightly larger scopes, budgets, publishers and teams, all three games fall in꧑to the smaller double-A category, taking the fifth, ninth, and 14th spots, respectively. These eight games make up 40 percent of Steam's top 20 concurrent player counts from titles released this year.
You can see the full data below:
|
Game |
Peak |
|
|
1 |
Monster Hunter Wilds |
1,384,608 |
|
2 |
Schedule I |
459,798 |
|
3 |
R.E.P.O |
271,571 |
|
4 |
Split Fiction |
259,003 |
|
5 |
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II |
256,206 |
|
6 |
Bongo Cat |
194,508 |
|
7 |
Stellar Blade |
192,078 |
|
8 |
Dune: Awakening |
189,333 |
|
9 |
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 |
145,063 |
|
10 |
Mecha Break |
132,816 |
|
11 |
Peak |
114,492 |
|
12 |
FragPunk |
113,946 |
|
13 |
Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond |
109,246 |
|
14 |
Rematch |
92,841 |
|
15 |
InZOI |
87,377 |
|
16 |
FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time |
65,389 |
|
17 |
Assassin's Creed Shadows |
64,825 |
|
18 |
RuneScape: Dragonwilds |
52,501 |
|
19 |
Sultan's Game |
46,106 |
|
20 |
Persona5: The Phantom X |
41,622 |
Surprising nobody, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Monster Hunter Wilds holds down the top spot, and that's unlikely to be beaten. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Split Fiction, another game from a smaller studio (but funded by EA), is in fourth, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Stellar Blade, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dune: Awakening, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mecha Break round out the top ten.
Games like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Doom: The Dark Ages and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii missed out on the top 20, as did the Steam releases of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us Part 2: Remastered, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
Long may this trend continue.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Top Critic Avg: 92/100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- April 24, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and 🌜Gore, S🐷trong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- 🍸 Sandfall 🌠Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- ꧋ Kepler Interactive ꧅
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
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