10 of the Most Played Games of All-Time According to Steam Charts

In addition to being one of the best and most user-friendly digital storefronts for PC gaming, Valve’s Steam client happens to be great at keeping track of a lot of useful statistics. One of the most interesting is Total Hours Played, which provides a nice snapshot of not only player habits (and how much time you may have spent trying to clear out every game in an endlessly growing backlog), but also the total amount of time spent by players on a game worldwide. Today, we’re taking a look at the most-played games of all-time according to Steam’s playtime charts, with several of the titles highlighted here fast-approaching the 1 billion hours played mark.

• Release Date — April 14, 2015
• Developer — Rockstar North
• Publisher — Rockstar Games
• Genre — Action-Adventure, Open-World
• Steam User Score — 87% (Very Positive)
• Total Hours Played — 51,046,179

Naturally, the longer a game is available on Steam, the more likely it is to have racked up a substantial amount of total hours played. Of course, regardless of when it came out, a Grand Theft Auto game is likely to do that anyway, which makes Grand Theft Auto V‘s Legacy Edition a shoo-in for a list like this. As of the time of writing, GTA V‘s original Steam version (released 10 years ago in 2015) has over 50 million total hours played across all users between both its single-player story mode and online component. And the longer we have to wait for GTA VI, the more likely that number is only going to continue to grow.

• Release Date — December 1, 2015
• Developer — Ubisoft Montreal
• Publisher — Ubisoft
• Genre — FPS, Multiplayer
• Steam User Score — 83% (Very Positive)
• Total Hours Played — 54,412,145

Another game that’s one of Steam’s most-played is also about to his its 10-year anniversary on the service, with Rainbow Six Siege originally launching all the way back in December of 2015. Since then, the game has grown by leaps and bounds to include new operatives, new maps, and even a new Siege X rebranding, which have all contributed to the title remaining one of the most popular PvP tactical shooters on the market. Players have accumulated nearly 55 million hours of playtime, which helps to underscore why Ubisoft continues to support this aging, but still great, shooter.

• Release Date — February 26, 2016
• Developer — ConcernedApe
• Publisher — ConcernedApe
• Genre — RPG, Farming Sim
• Steam User Score — 98% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Total Hours Played — 62,880,169

ConcernedApe’s Stardew Valley is one of the best on-ramps to the farming sim RPG, and that it’s fully playable in co-op only sweetens the deal. It remains one of the poster children for the appeal of the “cozy” game, with more than 60 million total hours played since its launch back in 2016. Were we to add up all the hours played across every platform that Stardew Valley is available on, there’s every likelihood that this charming “FarmPG” would easily surpass the 100 million-hour mark. Turns out planting crops and managing a farmstead is pretty addictive and rewarding.

• Release Date — December 5, 2024
• Developer — NetEase Games
• Publisher — NetEase Games
• Genre — Hero Shooter
• Steam User Score — 78% (Mostly Positive)
• Total Hours Played — 63,100,764

Since its launch late last year, Marvel Rivals has continually climbed up several of Steam’s most important charts, sitting near the top of the service’s most-played, top-selling, and most-streamed games in a moment of viral popularity. It’s easy to see why — Marvel Rivals is basically third-person Overwatch with heroes from the Marvel Comics Universe. But it also happens to be an incredibly fun game that’s easy to pick up and play but difficult to master, making it a great title to appeal to a wide range of players across varying skill levels.

• Release Date — November 4, 2020
• Developer — Respawn Entertainment
• Publisher — Electronic Arts
• Genre — FPS, Battle Royale
• Steam User Score — 67% (Mixed)
• Total Hours Played — 69,274,820

When Respawn first launched Apex Legends, there was a sentiment among players that it may well be the game to put the nail in Fortnite‘s coffin. And while it didn’t derail Fortnite‘s success all that much, it did quickly become one of the more popular and critically-acclaimed battle royale shooters, especially because of its Titanfall-like emphasis on movement and speed. Even though player sentiment toward Apex has declined in recent years due to some less-than-desirable decisions made by Electronic Arts, it’s still one of Steam’s most-played games, approaching nearly 70 million hours across all users.

• Release Date — December 4, 2024
• Developer — Team Jade
• Publisher — TiMi Studio Group
• Genre — FPS
• Steam User Score — 61% (Mixed)
• Total Hours Played — 75,563,765

The extraction shooter genre may be one of the fastest-growing subsets of FPS games in the industry, and Steam’s most-played charts are a great barometer for that increase in popularity. Despite only releasing last December, free-to-play extraction shooter Delta Force is already one of the most-played games on the service, ticking closer and closer to 80 million total hours played across all users as of August 2025. Not bad for a game that’s only 9 months old.

• Release Date — February 8, 2018
• Developer — Facepunch Studios
• Publisher — Facepunch Studios
• Genre — Survival, Open-World
• Steam User Score — 87% (Very Positive)
• Total Hours Played — 76,583,637

Even though Abiotic Factor is quickly coming for its crown, Rust remains the most popular open-world survival game on Steam with more than 75 million total hours played. This post-apocalyptic survival and crafting game is undoubtedly one of the best in the genre and a reminder of how this kind of game should be tackled, far surpassing many of its peers like ARK and Once Human to stand tall as the most-played game in the genre with some serious staying power. And that’s without even mentioning how incredibly difficult Rust is as a new player, which makes its total hours played all the more impressive.

• Release Date — December 21, 2017
• Developer — PUBG Corporation
• Publisher — Krafton
• Genre — Shooter, Battle Royale
• Steam User Score — 59% (Mixed)
• Total Hours Played — 226,511,123

The original Battle Royale game and a viral sensation all unto its own, PUBG: Battlegrounds is still one of the most-played games of all time on Steam, partially owing to the fact that Fortnite isn’t available on the service (thanks, Epic). But even with its mixed user review score and slight decline in popularity over the last few years, the one-time global popularity of PUBG helped propel the game to claim the number 3 spot on the list of titles with the most hours played, with a staggering 226 million hours spread out across the globe.

• Release Date — July 9, 2013
• Developer — Valve
• Publisher — Valve
• Genre — MOBA
• Steam User Score — 81% (Very Positive)
• Total Hours Played — 320,175,897

In a situation much like PUBG‘s, the second-most popular MOBA game takes one of the top spots on Steam’s most-played list thanks to the more popular League of Legends not being available on the service. Of course, DOTA 2 has an incredibly dedicated user base, many of whom would readily claim that it’s a much better MOBA than League, even if it’s not as popular in the competitive esports scene. Regardless of how you feel about the DOTA 2 vs LoL debate, though, there’s no detracting from DOTA‘s success as one of Steam’s most-played games, boasting an incredible 320 million hours played in 2025 and only falling behind the world’s most popular competitive game…

• Release Date — August 21, 2012
• Developer — Valve
• Publisher — Valve
• Genre — FPS
• Steam User Score — 86% (Very Positive)
• Total Hours Played — 676,665,921

To probably no one’s surprise, Valve’s Counter-Strike holds the crown for being the most-played game of all time, with close to a billion hours played as of the time of writing. Part of the game’s success can be attributed to just how long the game has been on the service, originally starting as Counter-Strike: GO before eventually getting its sequel update 2 years ago in 2023. It’s the world’s most popular game for competitive esports, one of the greatest tactical shooters ever made, and a certified global phenomenon that has crossed cultural and language barriers to become one of the most significant video games in history.