Summary
- Steam is generally considered to be the best launcher for PC gaming with over 50,000 titles, including a variety of successful indie games.
- User ratings help to identify the best games on Steam, with Left 4 Dead 2, Half-Life: Alyx, and RimWorld among the top-rated titles.
- Portal 2 is the highest-rated game on Steam, offering innovative mechanics, challenging puzzles, and even a co-op multiplayer mode.
Although there are other launchers out there, Steam is generally considered to be the number one platform when it comes to PC gaming. There are more than fifty thousand titles for players to choose from, including an excellent selection of indie games that owe much of their success to the sheer size of Steam's user base.
The 18 Most Expensive Games On Steam (& How Much They Cost)
Most games on Steam can be picked up for $60 or less, but there are a growing number of titles costing well over $100. These are the most expensive.
However, while having more choices is undoubtedly a good thing, it could make choosing what game to play next a little tricky. Thankfully, the platform allows users to rate and review titles, making it fairly easy to identify the best Steam games simply by looking for the ones that are the most highly rated by other players.
The following list is made up of the most highly-rated games on Steam based on user scores and uses data from SteamDB. Only games with more than 25,000 total Steam ratings will be considered.
15 Slay the Spire
Steam Rating: 96.5% Positive (150k+ Reviews)
There are plenty of great deck-building games on Steam, though few are able to hold a candle to Mega Crit's Slay the Spire. Released in early 2019, the game helped to drag the genre into the mainstream, with its roguelike elements and sleek presentation proving popular with many Hearthstone players in particular.
Several years after its release, Slay the Spire remains one of the best games on Steam and still boasts a healthy player base in spite of its advancing years. For fans of the genre, it's something of a must-play title, but also an excellent place to start for those who are new to roguelike deck-building games.
Slay the Spire
- Released
- January 23, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Mega Crit
- Publisher(s)
- Humble Bundle
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- Genre(s)
- Roguelike, Deckbuilding
14 Euro Truck Simulator 2
Steam Rating: 96.6% Positive (750k+ Reviews)
Being a truck driver may not be the most glamorous job in the world, but there's something strangely therapeutic about driving around the streets and highways of Europe in Euro Truck Simulator 2. So much so, in fact, that the game has accumulated more than 650 thousand positive ratings on Steam, making it one of the platform's most popular and well-received titles.
Despite being more than a decade old, the game still maintains a fairly sizable user base thanks in large to its regular updates and expansions. As of the time of writing, players are able to explore 34 different European countries, which works out to be more than half the continent. Fans of digital tourism will love what Euro Truck Simulator 2 has to offer, as too will those who enjoy relaxing and repetitive games.
Euro Truck Simulator 2
- Released
- October 18, 2012
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- SCS Software
- Publisher(s)
- SCS Software
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
13 Pizza Tower
Steam Rating: 96.7% Positive (50k+ Reviews)
Released in early 2023, Pizza Tower is one of the newest titles to find itself among the highest-rated games on Steam. It's a 2D platformer inspired by the Wario Land series and looks more like a forgotten nineties cartoon than a modern indie game. When it comes to gameplay though, it's entirely unique.
The fast-paced over-the-top action really helps to set the game apart from its peers, as too do its striking visuals and bombastic soundtrack. It may be a little too wacky for some people's tastes, but that's arguably all part of the game's charm. As far as recent platformers go this is easily one of the best and a must-play title for fans of the genre.
Pizza Tower
- Released
- January 26, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Tour De Pizza
- Publisher(s)
- Tour De Pizza
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- Genre(s)
- Platformer
12 The Henry Stickmin Collection
Steam Rating: 96.7% Positive (40k+ Reviews)
Innersloth is best known for its hugely popular imposter game Among Us, but that's not the only popular game that the indie studio has under its belt. The Henry Stickmin Collection serves as a modern-day remaster of one of the company's founders' early flash games, with a new chapter in the titular character's story also included with the release.
With an all-time peak player count of just 2,812, The Henry Stickmin Collection is nowhere near as popular as some of the other top Steam games. However, the overwhelming majority of those who did play it liked it enough to leave a positive rating, suggesting that those able to look past the game's basic visuals will more than likely find some enjoyment with this charming choose-your-own-adventure game.
The Henry Stickmin Collection
- Released
- August 8, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- Publisher(s)
- InnerSloth
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- Developer
- PuffballsUnited
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
11 Left 4 Dead 2
Steam Rating: 96.7% Positive (850k+ Reviews)
When it comes to co-op multiplayer games, they really don't come much better than Left 4 Dead 2. The 2009 title builds brilliantly upon the strong foundations laid down by its predecessor, offering up one of the most exhilarating and fun-filled FPS adventures of the 21st century.
Set in a world that has been overrun by flesh-hungry zombies, players are placed into the shoes of a survivor and must work with three others in order to stay alive. It helped to inspire countless other zombie-themed co-op games and is well worth its place among the best games on Steam.
Left 4 Dead 2
- Released
- November 17, 2009
WHERE TO PLAY
10 Half-Life: Alyx
Steam Rating: 96.8% Positive (75k+ Reviews)
There are plenty of incredible virtual reality games, but not too many that have been developed by large, well-established studios like Valve. Half-Life: Alyx is one of those rare exceptions and an excellent example of what the technology is capable of when enough time and money is thrown at a project.
Set some five years on from the events of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life: Alyx sees players take control of 19-year-old Alyx Vance as she ventures through the quarantine zone to learn the truth about a Combine superweapon known as The Vault. It's a stunning title from start to finish and a must-play for any and all VR enthusiasts.
Half-Life: Alyx
- Released
- March 23, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
9 RimWorld
Steam Rating: 96.8% Positive (175k+ Reviews)
RimWorld came about following a Kickstarter project, with developer Tynan Sylvester successfully raising a little over $200,000 in order to bring their vision to life. Around two and a half years later, the game was released on Steam, with a console port arriving some four years after that.
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This construction and management simulation title proved to be incredibly popular with players, with its AI-powered story generator helping to ensure that no two playthroughs are alike. It's been reviewed by more than 160 thousand people on Steam, with the overwhelming majority of players recommending it.
RimWorld
- Released
- October 17, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ludeon Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Ludeon Studios
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
8 Terraria
Steam Rating: 96.9% Positive (1.25m+ Reviews)
Terraria deserves a special mention due to the sheer number of times that it has been rated or reviewed. It has more than 1.1 million positive ratings, which is more than five of the six most highly-rated Steam games combined. Granted, the proportion of positive to negative ratings is a little lower, but it's an incredible achievement nonetheless.
Developed by Re-Logic and published by 505 Games, Terraria is a procedurally-generated 2D sandbox title with crafting mechanics and a heavy emphasis on exploration. Its Minecraft meets Metroid formula has proven to be incredibly successful over the years, with more than 44 million copies sold since its release back in May of 2011.
Terraria
- Released
- May 16, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
7 HoloCure - Save the Fans!
Steam Rating: 97.1% Positive (25k+ Reviews)
Some may dispute HoloCure - Save the Fans!'S place among the best Steam games, particularly with fewer than 15,000 players having rated it at the time of writing. However, it's difficult to ignore the game's positive review ratio, with the overwhelming majority of players having recommended the free Vampire Survivors-inspired fan game.
Those who enjoy games like Vampire Survivors and Halls of Torment should love what HoloCure has to offer, providing, that is, that they like anime waifus. It's one of the genre's more relaxing offerings, with its bright and colorful visuals and upbeat soundtrack offering up a refreshing change of pace. There's still plenty of depth though, which in turn allows for tons of replayability.
HoloCure - Save the Fans!
- Released
- June 23, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- KayAnimate
- Publisher(s)
- KayAnimate
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unsupported
- Genre(s)
- Roguelike
6 Portal
Steam Rating: 97.1% Positive (150k+ Reviews)
From its fantastic writing to its well-thought-out puzzles, there's an awful lot to like about Portal. As the title might suggest, the core premise of the game involves using two-way portals in order to solve a series of puzzles, with physics and momentum also playing an important role in proceedings.
Unlike a lot of other turn-of-the-century video games, the plot of Portal is incredibly straightforward. Players control a test subject named Chell and must complete a series of tests in order to appease a sharp-tongued rogue AI system named GLaDOS. It's a lot of fun though, and an easy recommendation for any puzzle game fan.
Portal
- Released
- October 10, 2007