The most played games on Steam this year include only two 2025 releases.

Another year passed and the dust settled. For many people, it can be a fun time to reflect on what they've been doing in the games they spend the most time on (unless you're an Xbox fan). It might also be interesting to see exactly which games dominated our collective free time throughout 2025, and to that end, Steam has once again provided us with an interesting list of the most played titles throughout 2025.

Naturally, it's filled with blockbuster games like Counter Strike and Marvel Rivals, as well as a series of other multiplayer games that dominate your life as you progress through these stages. But one of the most interesting aspects of this list is that only two of the 12 games were actually released in 2025.

The most played games on Steam this year include only two 2025 releases.

Pink repo character holding a flashlight.

We know that people are spending less on new games right now. This became pretty clear after Steam Replay revealed that only 14% of all play time on Steam in 2025 was spent on games released this year. Of the 12 most-played games of the year, Peak and Repo are the year's only marquees, with Arc Raiders, Hollow Knight: Silksong or Monster Hunter Wilds not standing out. In fact, there are more games on the list that are over 10 years old.

Peak, REPO, and Schedule 1 characters on a pink and black background.

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Nearly half of this year's best-performing Steam games came from double-A or indie studios.

Times are changing.

Stardew Valley, Terraria, and even Left 4 Dead 2 have all been played more than most games released in 2025, which makes sense since they are games that have been popular for a long time. A game like Arc Raiders might have appeared had it been released earlier in the year, but it lacked the benefit of not being playable for a full 12 months.

And even if you expand the list of this year's most played titles to 24, you'll still only get titles like Schedule 1, Battlefield 6, and Call of Duty, two of which are expected to make the list each year they are released. In fact, Call of Duty ranked in the top 12 in both 2024 and 2023, supporting the argument that Black Ops 6 was an extremely disappointing player-wise this year.

It's interesting that of all the games that could represent 2025, the so-called “friendslop” games like Peak and Repo stand out above all else. This may point to where the industry is headed. People will want cheap, fun experiences they can play with friends or stick to the games they've always played, and it'll be interesting to see how the industry adapts to this.