That the physical games sales have dropped over the last years is no secret, but it hasn’t been replaced by piract but by online sales. Game distributor and developer Valve has through its Steam platform the most extensive service today and recent figures state that Steam reached 970 million USD in revenue last year.
According to Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) Valve is believed to have reached a record haul through its popular online service, where it peaked in December with 213 million dollar, just that month.
Valveis just one of many developers that distributes its titles through Steam and during 2010 it was only the thir largest developer, considering gross income, with 80 million dollar. The largest was Activision with 153 million dollar thanks to its Call of Duty series. The complete list of the top 10 grossing games on Steam in2010 can be found below, and shows Call of Duty: Black Ops as the unchallenged leader with gross sales of 98.2 million dollar.
Best selling games in 2010, based on estimated gross sales
- Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision) – $98.2 Million USD
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision) – $39.4 Million USD
- Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve) – $36.0 Million USD
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts) – $25.4 Million USD
- Sid Meier’s Civilization V (2K Games) – $21.9 Million USD
- Portal (Valve) – $20.0 Million USD
- Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda Softworks) – $17.0 Million USD
- Metro 2033 (THQ) – $13.4 Million USD
- Mafia II (2K Games) – $11.9 Million USD
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising (THQ) – $10.8 Million USD
It’s worth mentioning that over 180 different games grossed over 1 million dollar in 2010, which shows there is width in both assortment and support for smaller developers. At the same time, 7 out of 10 games in the Top 10 list are FPS (First Person Shooters).
