Game Rejected by Players Among Biggest January Launches on Steam
Among the biggest January launches on Steam was the heavily criticized Forspoken. The remake of Dead Space and a online game about the adventures of apes also did well.
Valve has published a list of the biggest launches of January 2023 on Steam. The criterion was the revenue generated within two weeks of the debut. Traditionally, specific sales results or even the correct order of titles on the list were not revealed. Therefore, we added estimates from the paid version of SteamSpy to the list. Unfortunately, they are sometimes wildly inaccurate, but it's better than nothing.
January's biggest game launches on Steam
January brought many successful launches. Dead Space turned out to be a near-perfect remake, fulfilling virtually all the hopes of fans. In turn Hi-Fi Rush was the biggest surprise of the month, as this excellent arcade game debuted on the same day it was announced at the Microsoft show. In addition, three older Ubisoft titles premiered on Steam: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Watch Dogs: Legion and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. These were not warmly received due to technical issues, but they sold well, especially considering that they had been available on other services for many years.
Also doing decently was Forspoken, although it is difficult to talk about success in the case of this title. The game received poor reviews, and its PC version left a lot to be desired, which turned off many gamers. The publisher Square Enix decided that the studio responsible for the title, Luminous Productions, will cease to exist as an independent team.
January was also a good month for independent developers. Such games as the Chinese RPG The Search for Eternal Life, platformer Pizza Tower or comedy online game Gorilla Tag became hits on Steam. The boxing game Undisputed also did very well. In addition, it is worth noting the good results of SimRail: The Railway Simulator.
# | Game | Number of owners according to SteamSpy estimates: |
1. | 728 thousand. | |
2. | 702 thousand. | |
3. | 467 thousand. | |
4. | 461 thousand. | |
5. | 303 thousand. | |
6. | 171 thousand. | |
7. | 154 thousand. | |
8. | 94 thousand. | |
9. | 85 thousand. | |
10. | 70 thousand. | |
11 | 67 thousand. | |
12. | 67 thousand. | |
13. | 56 thousand. | |
14. | 41 thousand. | |
15. | 40k. | |
16. | 35 thousand. | |
17. | 31 thousand (free-to-play game) | |
18. | 23 thousand. | |
19. | 11 thousand. |
January's biggest DLC launches on Steam
SteamSpy does not provide data for DLCs, so the order is random. Overall, it was a fairly modest month for expansions. Of the larger releases, only Rain World: Downpour is worth mentioning. The game was quite a surprise, as it was the first DLC for this title - it was released almost 6 years after the game's release.
- Rain World: Downpour
- KOF XV Fighter Pass
- Brawlhalla - Battle Pass Season 7
- MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries - Rise of Rasalhague
- Hunt: Showdown - La Luz Mala
January's biggest F2P launches (by concurrent player count)
Valve also released an additional list, including the most popular F2P game launches in June. In this case, the number of users playing simultaneously was taken as the criterion.
The biggest free-to-play January launch on Steam by far was the Japanese action game Warlander.
# | Game | Current activity record according to SteamDB |
1. | 23 428 | |
2. | 4748 | |
3. | 1437 | |
4. | 828 | |
5. | 499 |
We have sorted the above list according to a game's overall activity record (obtained from SteamDB's estimates), and not just the one achieved last month, as this gives a better idea of the level of success a particular production has achieved on Steam.
