The 15 Most Played Steam Games of All Time

ign.com:

Whether it’s the emergence of the battle royale genre or breakout multiplayer survival games, PC gaming often serves as the frontier for the latest trends and innovations in the gaming landscape, often leading to massive concentrations of players.

But of all the PC games ever to appear on the Steam charts, few have enjoyed the exceptional popularity of those atop Steam’s most played charts. Based on the maximum number of concurrent players ever held by any game on Valve’s platform, here are the 15 most played Steam games of all time.

Concurrent Player Record: 472,962

As the long-awaited sequel from the studio that had most recently released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the anticipation for Fallout 4 was undeniable around the time of launch. So much so, in fact, that in the days after its debut, it soared to the top of Steam’s player charts and set a record that still ekes out a spot on the top 15 of all time to this very day.

With an infinite number of settlements needing the help of players, it's no wonder why this game’s player count has stood the test of time.

Concurrent Player Record: 472,791

Hilariously, Capcom Arcade Stadium shot to the top of the Steam charts and was the third most played game at one point (above even Apex Legends and PUBG) long after its initial release. Why? The answer, according to Pavel Djundik who is an expert on Steam’s metrics, is that bots flooded to the game and idled within it in order to farm Steam Trading Cards.

Steam Trading Cards are digital collectibles on Valve’s platform that can be traded for monetary value, and making a bot pretend to play a game is apparently one way that one might acquire cards to be sold. The fact that Capcom Arcade Stadium can be downloaded for free makes it a