Steam Reveals 2026’s Top Revenue Earners as Multiplayer Dominates the Charts
On December 29, Steam gave users a look at which games that were launched this year made the most revenue on the platform. The results paint a clear picture of where PC gamers spent their money in 2026, with online multiplayer experiences claiming the lion’s share of revenue.
Online multiplayer games, including ARC Raiders, Battlefield 6, Schedule I, Dune: Awakening, and Elden Ring: Nightreign, dominated Steam’s Top 12 games of 2026 by revenue. In the “Platinum” tier, or the Top 12 overall, nine games are multi-player experiences. This overwhelming preference for connected gameplay suggests that 2026 was definitively the year of social gaming on PC.
Of the year’s biggest earners, only three games are purely single-player between Hollow Knight Silksong, Oblivion Remastered, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 – impressive given that the charts are based on revenue, and the trio above don’t have endless microtransactions or battle passes to sell players.
The tiers that Steam used are Platinum (1st through 12th), Gold (13th through 24th), Silver (26th through 50th), and Bronze (51st to 100th). The games listed on Steam’s full roster were sorted randomly in each tier. Steam stated that its top 100 bestsellers list of 2026 will be updated on January 15, just days after the Winter Sale concludes.
What does this multiplayer dominance mean for the future of PC gaming? Will single-player experiences continue to carve out their niche, or are developers taking note of where the money flows?
