Steam Next Fest’s most popular demos show high interest in strategy titles
The February 2024 edition of Steam Next Fest is behind us and Valve released some interesting statistics related to the event, revealing the 50 most-played demos based on their unique users across all seven days of the digital festival.
Dungeonborne, a first-person PvPvE dungeon-crawler, came out on top with its fantasy spin on the popular extraction shooter formula. Games of this sort have been gaining popularity recently and Dungeonborne’s isn’t the only similar demo that did well during the event: Dungeon Stalkers, a third-person dungeon-crawler following the battle royale formula, just missed hitting the top ten.
Another big winner of this recent Next Fest was the strategy genre with three classic strategy titles entering the top ten.
Millennia was my personal highlight of Steam Next Fest in February 2024.
C Prompt Games / Paradox Interactive
Stormgate, which hopes to become the next great RTS game, grabbed second place overall thanks to a huge publicity campaign in concert with influencers. Though it shines on a technical and mechanical level, Stormgate’s presentation isn’t quite living up the hype just yet.
Homeworld 3, the long-awaited space RTS which has been delayed to May 2024, took fifth place with the demo of its co-op mode. Incorporating roguelike elements, the besieged development studio Blackbird Interactive hopes that War Games can bind players to Homeworld 3 in the long term and serve as an avenue for post-launch monetization.
Millennia, the 4X turn-based strategy and debut game by C Prompt Games, settled on seventh place with its demo, which allowed players to access the first 60 turns of the game. Though it’s not the most visually appealing game of all time, Millennia’s core mechanics are absolutely on point and will make for an engaging as well as unique entry into the genre based on what the demo has shown.
Other popular demos from Next Fest include Pacific Drive, which is launching on February 22, 2024, and Backpack Battles, a multiplayer auto-battler coming out on March 8, 2024.
Strategy fans may also be interested in Breachway, a promising title fusing FTL with Slay the Spire, and narrative city-builder Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown, which both entered the top 50.
