8 Of The Most Played Multiplayer Games On Steam In 2024

We’re just a few short days from 2025, so everyone’s busy doing their favorite end-of-the-year thing – tallying data. One company that has a lot of data to play with and turn into fancy pages is Steam, which recently posted its “Best of 2024” list. We know that’s a pretty vague title. The good news is that they break it down into sections: Top Sellers, New Releases, Most Played, etc.

So, as it’s the end of the year, we’ve decided to look at one of those sections – Most Played – and see what was going on in the multiplayer space. At this point, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that multiplayer games take up a lot of the top spaces. Steam broke the Most Played section down into groups of over 450,000 peak players, over 200,000 peak players, over 100,000 peak players, and over 50,000 peak players. All of the sections are filled with multiplayer games. But to be honest, we don’t really to leave the top section to complete our list here.

One thing to note is that as you make your way down to the games with lower numbers of peak players, a lot of them are games that have their own launcher and some had them well before they were made available on Steam. So, if you scroll through Steam’s list, those lower numbers probably aren’t the best indication of how many players the game actually has. That said, 50K still isn’t a bad number.

Dota 2

Dota 2 is the first game in the greater than 450k peak player section. It’s not surprising that Valve’s own MOBA would be somewhere in the lineup of heavily played games. Having launched eleven years ago, it’s simply a mainstay. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it’s free and that as one of Valve’s own games, it’s absolutely going to show up in any remotely related search.

Apex Legends

Another free-to-play game with more than 450k players, and the first shooter on the list, Apex Legends has been going strong since it launched back in 2019. It’s EA’s most recent entry under the Titanfall IP, except in battle royale form.

Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 was having a bit of a rough go around this time last year. Mostly in the fact that the first-person shooter had an issue with its code that allowed players to see each other’s IP addresses or even worse, alter code on the PC. But Valve fixed it fairly quickly and it’s obviously still going strong, being yet another on the list of 450K+ players.

Marvel Rivals

Marvel Rivals has officially been out for about three weeks now, and it’s one of the most played and talked about games around. The hero shooter allows players to come up with a bunch of ways to combine their heroes’ powers in impressive ways, a feature they keep expanding on.

Helldivers II

Not surprisingly, another shooter makes the list. But it’s one that’s also included in the top group of games on Steam’s most played page and has the distinction of having been a contender for a few The Game Awards categories, including Best Community Support – just in case you needed confirmation that people are happy with the game.

Path Of Exile II

Fans of action RPGs waited for this one for a while. Technically, it hasn’t officially launched yet. When it does, it will be free to play. At present, players have to pay to get into early access. And they’re willing to do it – enough to also land Grinding Gear Games’ latest offering in the over 450k player category.

PUBG: Battlegrounds

PUBG is one of the OG battle royale games. But it hasn’t always had a free-to-play option. That’s where Battlegrounds comes in. And, despite the mixed reviews on Steam, it still brings in the players, making it one of the most played games on the platform.

Palworld

What do you get when you combine Pokemon and guns – other than a really annoyed Nintendo? You get one of the most popular games on Steam. Yes, the Palworld devs have had to deal with Nintendo. Although, not quite in the way a lot of us probably expected. But they’ve adjusted and seem to be back on track, without losing out on players.