Valve has released its annual Best of Steam 2023: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. In a year blessed with great games, there were no surprises among the top-ranked games, but we didn't expect the 1998 classic "Half-Life" to top the list of most-played Steam deck games in terms of daily active players.

By revenue.

The list of top sellers by revenue is the usual mix of the biggest free-to-play games and the biggest releases on Steam, led by releases like Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Sons of the Forest is in the same tier as the big AAA releases. It's nice to see, as it was once a small studio! The list of most-played games is nearly identical, except for one.

"Goose Goose Duck," a free-to-play game that heavily copied "Along Us," became almost as popular. It is included in the overall most-played list, grouped by peak concurrent player count, which was probably due to its peak of over 700,000 players at one point last January. [Traditional console games like "Jedi Survivor" and "Street Fighter 6" are proving popular on Steam alongside games like "Baldur's Gate 3" and "Remnant 2. It also reveals that people are still buying critically acclaimed games: both "Payday 3" and "Cities Skylines 2" are among the top Platinum Award winners. Otherwise, "Far Cry 6" surprisingly stayed at Silver.

This year's top Early Access sales included less talked-about games as well as obvious ones like "Baldur's Gate 3," "Ready or Not" and "Against the Storm. You might be surprised to see the farm life sim "Sun Haven" and the battle royale "Farlight 84" among the top earners. It is heartwarming to see small-team indie games like "World of Horror" and "Your Only Move is Hustle" charting.

Finally, the Steam Deck category, which is probably better as the most played, since it is based on daily active players, not peak players. All predictable and reasonable: some of the most popular new releases of the last few years, including The Witcher 3, Dave the Diver, and Vampire Survivors, as well as some great deck-friendly games. It's really what you'd expect: ...... However, it seems that many people, including me, are playing a lot of "Half-Life". Like, for example, Gordon Freeman on "Black Mesa" released in 1998. There must be a reason for this, but I don't know what it is.

Valve lists two more categories, one for most played games with a controller and one for VR; the rest of the Steam Best of 2023 can be found on Steam in your web browser.