Strategy, Simulation, and Action games dominated Steam Next Fest, with Once Human and The Alters among top demos

Around 1,800 demos were showcased during the June 2024 edition of Steam Next Fest. Here is a breakdown of the top-performing titles and general trends.

Shortly after the end of the Steam Next Fest, Valve shared the top 50 demos ordered by number of unique players.

1. Once Human — post-apocalyptic multiplayer shooter with survival elements from NetEase’s first-party team Starry Studio (the game also has over 14.6 million pre-registrations on mobile);
2. Level Zero: Extraction — extraction horror shooter described by publisher tinyBuild as “Alien Isolation meets Escape from Tarkov” (in April, the company said almost 100k players have opted in to participate in a public playtest);
3. 中国式网游 (Chinese Online Game) — weird-looking life sim that explores… Chinese online games and their influence on people’s lives (we can only assume here, since the project targets the domestic audience and doesn’t support other languages);
4. Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown — open world racing game from WRC developer KT Racing and the first installment in the Test Drive series in 12 years;
5. Tiny Glade — relaxing builder created by indie studio Pounce Light (it only has two developers on the team), and its doodling mechanic looks really charming;
6. Wizard of Legend 2 — sequel to the 2018 action roguelite (the new title is developed by Dead Mage, creators Children of Morta);
7. Duckside — goofy take on the DayZ formula from tinyBuild (open world, PvP, survival elements… but with ducks);
8. Metal Slug Tactics — Dotemu returns with a revival of another classic franchise, this time presenting a turn-based tactics with roguelite elements set in the Metal Slug universe;
9. The Alters — sci-fi survival/colony management game based around the concept of creating your own clones (developed by Frostpunk creator 11 bit studios);
10. Lost Castle 2 — sequel to the 2016 2D beat’em up with roguelite elements from Hunter Studio.

Simon Carless and the GameDiscoverCo team traditionally published a database and analyzed the performance of all Next Fest demos.

Once Human experienced the biggest follower increase, adding over 14k new followers. It is followed by The Alters (+5,708), Level Zero: Extraction (+4,879), Ripple In Dirac Sea (+4,816), and Tactical Breach Wizards (+4,286).

Below are the top 10 demos by peak concurrent players:

• Once Human — 19,487 CCU;
• Chinese Online Game — 5,910 CCU;
• Ripple in Dirac Sea — 5,735 CCU;
• Level Zero: Extraction — 4,915 CCU;
• Lost Castle 2 — 4,728 CCU;
• Yaoling: Mythical Journey — 4,265 CCU;
• Duckside — 2,582 CCU;
• Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown — 2,577 CCU;
• Meme Mayhem — 1,799 CCU;
• Lords of Ravage — 1,757 CCU.

Strategy was the top tag, with 18 of the top 60 demos using it. It is followed by Simulation (12) and Action (11). Other popular tags include Early Access, Adventure, RPG, Singleplayer, Deckbuilding, Multiplayer, Card Game, Roguelike Deckbuilder, Survival, and Open World.

When looking at the top 10 titles by followers, the most popular tags were Survival, Shooter, Strategy, and Casual.

Check out GameDiscoverCo’s full document for more intersting data and findings.