It’s no secret that 2023 was a big year for games, but the top sellers on Steam for the year include a couple of surprise indie hits that managed to go toe to toe with the big boys.
What do you think the best selling game on Steam was in 2023? You’ll only need one guess, but I’m not even going to give you the opportunity to do so, because it’s Baldur’s Gate 3. Who could have seen that coming! Literally everyone. This comes from industry analyst site Video Game Insights, who recently shared a report on the best selling and top earning games of 2023 on Steam – and yeah, Baldur’s Gate 3 was the top earner too, you also won’t be surprised to hear.
According to Video Game Insights, Baldur’s Gate 3 earned $657 million in revenue last year, almost twice as much as the second place game Hogwarts Legacy, which apparently took in $341 million. As the report notes, though, third place went to Starfield at $235 million, “despite being heavily cannibalised by a day one Xbox Game Pass release and underwhelming launch reception.” Other titles featured on the list won’t surprise you that much, like Resident Evil 4 and EA Sports FC 24, but in ninth place is one of last year’s later entries, and surprise indie hit, Lethal Company, which apparently made $52 million in revenue.
That’s a whole lot of dough for a game made by a single developer, and interestingly enough, Lethal Company was actually the third best selling game of 2023, only behind Baldur’s Gate 3 and Hogwarts Legacy. Bear in mind, Lethal Company costs less than a tenner, whereas the top two are premium titles, so the gap in revenue makes sense. The indie horror isn’t the only top seller though, as the Battlefield-like BattleBit Remastered was the seventh highest selling game of 2023 on Steam as well, beating out much bigger names like Resident Evil 4 and Armored Core 6.
Both the top sellers and top earners definitely have some surprises within them, and really does show you that you just can’t predict where the industry will find success.