The Top 100 Best-Selling Video Games in Steam History

Since September 12th, 2003 Steam has reigned as the top internet-based digital distribution platform in gaming. During its healthy life of more than 11 years it has become the go-to platform for most PC gamers. For many of those who enjoy gaming on keyboard and mouse it is revered for bringing stability and standards to PC gaming and has accumulated hundreds of millions of video game sales along the way.

Since Valve doesn't release Steam sales data, it's previously been difficult to see what has struck lightning on the platform. Thankfully, SteamSpy's Sergey Galyonkin has taken it upon himself to find a solution. After months of work he has compiled a list of Steam sales data which includes every game that has sold at least one million copies. The results are informative, and many times surprising.

Below what you'll find is a list of the top 100 best-selling games in Steam history, with their name and total sales to-date listed. You'll encounter a few important details as you traverse the list. For example, the top spot is a game you probably haven't even heard of. This is due to Steam's Free Weekends where customers can download, install, and play games for several days before the game is locked. These downloads are treated as purchases, which affects the list. It has an unfortunate side-effect, but at the very least has only tampered with the validity of the list on a few entries.

Besides that, what you'll notice are some important trends happening in gaming, particularly with the rise of indie titles. While this list has its fair share of AAA games including the likes of BioShock: Infinite and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, they are outnumbered by the army of games released at an MSRP of $19.99 or less. Price matters.

With all that said, check out the full top 100 list below.

1. Men of War: Assault Squad 2 – 18,887,301
2. Counter-Strike: Source – 13,687,323
3. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast – 13,483,312
4. Unturned – 13,140,974
5. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – 12,134,826
6. Left 4 Dead 2 – 11,970,999
7. Half-Life 2: Deathmatch – 11,426,195
8. Counter-Strike – 11,168,089
9. Half-Life 2 – 8.776,362
10. Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Deleted Scenes – 8,8670,493
11. Garry's Mod – 8,566,169
12. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – 8,281,789
13. Portal – 8,198,330
14. Sid Meier's Civilization V – 7,302,688
15. Day of Defeat – 7,165,135
16. Deathmatch Classic – 7,077,811
17. Ricochet – 7,050,764
18. Portal 2 – 6,349,088
19. Warframe – 6,101,801
20. Talisman: Digital Edition – 6,087,119
21. Robocraft – 5,922,518
22. Day of Defeat: Source – 5,856,833
23. Terraria – 5,729,326
24. Half-Life 2: Episode One – 4,877,732
25. Half-Life – 5,198,432
26. Heroes & Generals – 5,046,196
27. Half-Life 2: Episode Two – 4,877,732
28. Killing Floor – 4,858,412
29. Borderlands 2 – 4,846,821
30. Team Fortress Classic – 4,819,774
31. Half-Life: Opposing Force – 4,785,772
32. Half-Life: Blue Shift – 4,773,408
33. PAYDAY 2 – 4,679,676
34. War Thunder – 4,646,673
35. Metro 2033 – 4,587,170
36. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 4,420,251
37. Dead Island: Epidemic – 4,299,699
38. PAYDAY: The Heist – 3,796,625
39. Loadout – 3,718,575
40. Left 4 Dead – 3,606,523
41. PlanetSide 2 – 3,571,748
42. Half-Life Deathmatch: Source – 3,538,519
43. No More Room in Hell – 3,502,199
44. Grand Theft Auto IV – 3,501,426
45. Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead – 3,455,833
46. Saints Row: The Third – 3,451,969
47. Sniper Elite V2 – 3,392,466
48. Just Cause 2 – 3,370,055
49. BioShock Infinite – 3,322,916
50. Fallout: New Vegas – 3,290,460
51. Call of Duty: Black Ops – 3,232,502
52. Call of Duty: Black Ops Multiplayer – 3,232,502
53. DayZ – 3,143,633
54. Magicka – 3,137,451
55. Tomb Raider – 3,081,039
56. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – 3,027,718
57. Empire: Total War – 2,989,079
58. Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies – 2,968,987
59. Path of Exile – 2,952,759
60. Torchlight 2 – 2,764,975
61. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition – 2,697,744
62. Rising Storm/Red Orchestra 2 Multiplayer – 2,669,152
63. BioShock – 2,656,015
64. Warface – 2,642,877
65. Chivalry: Medieval Warfare – 2,639,786
66. XCOM: Enemy Unknown – 2,632,059
67. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Phantoms – 2,598,830
68. The Binding of Isaac – 2,533,144
69. Don't Starve – 2,433,456
70. Neverwinter – 2,426,502
71. Half-Life: Source – 2,423,410
72. Far Cry 3 – 2,416,456
73. Rust – 2,397,909
74. Company of Heroes – 2,390,181
75. Nosgoth – 2,363,907
76. Total War: SHOGUN 2 – 2,356,952
77. Batman: Arkham City GOTY – 2,353,088
78. Mirror's Edge – 2,342,269
79. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City – 2,333,769
80. Tropico 5 – 2,331,451
81. Borderlands – 2,268,856
82. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – 2,268,083
83. Saints Row IV – 2,248,764
84. BioShock 2 – 2,222,490
85. APB Reloaded – 2,218,626
86. FTL: Faster Than Light – 2,208,580
87. Total War: ROME 2 Emperor Edition – 2,207,807
88. Hitman: Absolution – 2,192,352
89. Age of Empires 2: HD Edition
90. theHunter – 2,131,303
91. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 – 2,129,757
92. Saints Row 2 – 2,104,256
93. Trine 2 – 2,104,256
94. Castle Crashers – 2,072,572
95. Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition – 2,056,344
96. Firefall – 2,047,844
97. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – 2,046,298
98. Darksiders – 1,982,931
99. Dead Space – 1,979,067
100. Defiance – 1,978,294

To see the rest of the list as well as Metacritic data, standard deviation, price, and more, check out SteamSpy.