Steam Charts: Farming, Factories And Fallouts

Yup, I'm trying to make this a regular thing again. I know you're very excited about that. Bit late this week as I wasn't around for the first two days of it, but there is still MUCH TO LEARN from the top-ten best-sellers on Steam last week.

It's a strong mix of independent and mega-gazillion blockbuster; though the overall shape of the chart isn't hugely surprising, the number one winnah perhaps is.

1. Stardew Valley

This is lovely to see. The indie, PC-only Harvest Moon-alike has had a right old rampage up the charts, proving that the mainstream PC game-player continues to be the least predictable of game-players. Perhaps, after being barraged with glossy shooters for several months (nix that - years) on the trot, there's a real appetite for tranquillity instead of destruction.

2. Tom Clancy’s The Division

But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Ubisoft is deliriously happy with sales of its extremely online shooter and Destiny riposte, although I imagine there's been some handwringing that they're being outsold on PC by a farming simulator. We quite liked it, FYI.

3. Far Cry Primal

A good month for the French lot - the latest Far Cry continues to do well for itself, even if it's a worrying sign of the series falling into a holding pattern. I quickly grew tired of Primal , but it sure is pretty.

4. Tom Clancy’s The Division Gold Edition

No, no, this is all wrong - you're only allowed to call things Gold Editions when you re-release a budget collection with all the expansion packs two years later. Ubisoft have bent the rules and called an all-in-one buy containing the season pass and some other DLC nuggets their Gold version.

5. Fallout 4 Season Pass

Bethesda's grab-bag of add-on content for it's Quite Good But post-apocalyptic not-really-an-RPG-anymore is doing rather well for itself even though the price recently doubled. That happened as a result of the first chunk of DLC now being right around the corner.

6. Far Cry Primal

This here's the marginally more expensive Apex Edition and its realistically slightly pointless weapon DLC. Shame we can't see what the chart looks like if all the Division and Primal packs are lumped together - I wouldn't be enormously surprised if the Division did topple Stardew if that were so.

7. Rise of the Tomb Raider

I don't hear too many people talking about Lara's latest now, but it's hanging on in the charts - so clearly tons of people are quietly getting on with playing it by themselves without outwardly raving or ranting about it. This sort of tallies with my own experience of it: I enjoy the action and particularly the survival mode DLC, but the tale and characterisation leaves me too cold to have much to say about it.

8. Factorio

Good old Factorio, the management/construction game that anyone's going to have a hard time beating. Following in the footsteps of Banished and Big Pharma, it proves that there's a huge appetite for strategy that's far more about construction than combat. So far, Paradox with their Cities: Skylines is the only bigger firm to take advantage of that. These things are surely fiddly little bastards to develop though, so I doubt anyone's rushing into it willy-nilly.

9. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

This is pretty much only likely to fall out of the top ten during the week of a big Steam sale. Question is, will it remain a paid game or eventually join Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 in the green and lucrative lands of free-to-play? Or does its ongoing refusal to do that signal that, even for Valve, the Old Ways are best after all?

10. SUPERHOT

Our chart is top'n'tailed by leftishfield independent offerings. In a month when The Division is doing trad. shootybang writ as large as possible, it's great to see an alternative doing it writ as unusual as possible.

To recap, then:

New entries: The Division Gold Edition.

Dropped out: The Culling. Gone so soon?

Charts via PC gaming news stalwart Blues.