Valve has published its annual Best of Steam list for 2024, ranking the year's top games in various categories. The top-sellers list for 2024 bears a lot of similarity to that one 2023, with one notable exception: Starfield is nowhere to be seen.
Valve doesn't release sales data for individual games, so we can't say how much any particular title on the list pulled in: Instead, they're randomly sorted in «buckets»—platinum, gold, silver, and bronze—indicating their relative success.
Given the number of games released every month on Steam, even a bronze-tier ranking represents a significant success. Five of the 12 games in the platinum category—PUBG Battlegrounds, Destiny 2, Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, and Apex Legends—are free to play, and all five were ranked in the same category in 2023, a testament to the lucrative value of a free-to-play hit.
At the other end of the spectrum, Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3 are both hanging in there: Elden Ring no doubt benefited from the release of the outstanding Shadow of the Erdtree expansion in June, but Baldur's Gate 3 maintaining its spot more than a year after release—with numerous meaty updates to its credit but no full-on DLC—is something of a surprise.
Black Myth: Wukong and Helldivers 2 also made the cut, as did Space Marine 2, Black Ops 6, and Palworld. As I mentioned, I also find it interesting that Starfield has dropped out of the list completely.