Steam Charts: Clancy, Cavemen, Construction & Cullings

A run-down of the previous week's top-selling Steam titles is something I used to do regularly, but a combination of it tending to be fairly unchanging week-to-week and being a feckless human being who can't stand to do the same thing for long meant I fell out the habit. These are changed times, though: with indiepocalypses here and flash sales there, the Steam charts are now wildly changeable, so I like to look in from time to time, like an old aunt raising a withered eyebrow at reports of what her nephews are up to at university. This week: a whole lot of Ubisoft, not a lot of XCOM and an unofficial Hunger Games (or an unofficial Running Man, if you prefer the awful classics).

1. The Division [official site]

Ubisoft's MMOish open world shooter isn't even out until tomorrow, but has snagged the top spot on pre-orders (off the back of a widely-available and well-received beta) alone. You can learn when The Division comes out in your timezone by clicking that link.

2. Stardew Valley [official site]

We liked this 'honkey-tonk love letter to the Harvest Moon' quite a bit, and it turns out that a huge slice of the Steam userbase is really into cutsey, pressure-free farming too.

3. Far Cry Primal [official site]

Cementing Far Cry's place as the new Assassin's Creed, Primal isn't quite attracting the delirious reviews of the previous 2.5 games, but is selling a blinder because a whole lotta folk simply want more of that stuff and added sabertooth tigers sounds pretty good on paper. Let's hope it isn't a fixed sign-post to what ongoing annual Far Cries mean for what's historically been a fascinatingly changeable series.

4. Fallout 4 [official site] Season Pass

I.e. purely unreleased DLC for Bethesda's RPG, which is an oddity in the charts. Recent official reveals as to what said DLC would contain - including a completely overhauled survival mode - have gotten folk who have now overdosed on the main game excited again, it seems.

5. Far Cry Primal [official site]

I believe this is the £5 more expensive 'Apex Edition', which includes assorted DLC bits'n'bobs.

6. Rise of the Tomb Raider [official site]

Lara's latest - a fantastic and fantastically beautiful action game only slightly undermined by its story being an oppressively dour rip-off of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - continues to do well on PC now it's been liberated from its Xbone-exclusive gaol.

7. Factorio [official site]

I'm writing a feature about this today, as it happens, but in short: I completely understand why it's doing so well, and any other management game released in the next decade has my pity. I'm not sure how anything could push it much further than this absurdly, gloriously complicated construction game could.

8. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [official site]

Pretty much the only going-concern Valve game that isn't free to play, and as such a mainstay of the charts. Counter-Strike will never die.

9. Superhot [official site]

SUPERHOT. The shooter which earns and owns its high concept. Justified.

10. The Culling [official site]

The only name here I didn't already know. Basically, it's online, open-world survival in the DayZ mould but with a Hunger Games/Battle Royale/Running Man theme thrown around it. 16 players scavenge, craft and kill until only one remains. I suspect we'll have more on this very soon.