Some games you don’t even have on your screen and suddenly they’re huge. MeinMMO introduces you to 5 of these titles that have literally exploded on Steam.
What are these games? Here we show you titles that were suddenly able to attract a huge number of players on Steam. We go into both multiplayer titles and pure singleplayer.
It is important that they have experienced a decent boom, either at the time of release or as a result of an update. We do this based, among other things, on our experience with reporting, but also on figures for the games with the most players of all time on Steam (via steamdb.info). We go from the smallest to the largest title by number of players.
What you won’t find here, however, are games that were actually expected to be successful – such as Lost Ark or New World. You can find out more about these and similar titles in our list of the top MMORPGs on Steam:
The 10 best rated MMORPGs on Steam in 2022
V Rising
Developer/Publisher: Stunlock Studios | Genre: Survival | Steam release: May 17, 2022 (Early Access) | Player Peak: 150,645 | Type: Single player, co-op, PvP
All information about the new vampire survival MMO “V Rising” on Steam – in 2 minutes
What is V Rising? You play as a vampire who has been stripped of his power and must regain your old strength. To do this, you collect resources, build your own castle and, of course, suck blood.
What makes V Rising special is the game’s combat system. With various weapons and spells, you fight on foot or on horseback against dozens of opponents and/or other players. Positioning and the use of different skills are important in order to win.
Alone, in co-op, with a clan or on large servers in PvE or PvP you claim your own land and hunt animals, people and bosses. The game is played in an isometric perspective (“diagonally from above”).
You can hear more about V Rising and why it arouses nasty sadists even in nice people in the podcast:
how did it explode V Rising came at a time when the gaming landscape was otherwise quite broken. The last major release was Elden Ring and the big announcements were yet to come. Accordingly, many gamers were hot for a new title.
At the same time, V Rising was able to convince with its unique vampire setting as well as with its gameplay. Indie developer Stunlock has years of experience with arena battles in Battlerite and Bloodline Champions.
Many fans praised the fact that V Rising feels amazingly complete and just plain good despite being in Early Access. The controls are intuitive and easy to learn without being boring. Together with the dark gothic look that only a few games show, V Rising quickly became a popular insider tip.
Among Us
Developer/Publisher: Innersloth | Genre: Party/Detective Game | Steam release: November 16, 2018 | Player Peak: 447,476 | Type: multiplayer
What is Among Us? You play as a group of astronauts and have to prepare a spaceship for launch. There are various tasks that you have to do – such as cleaning up or reconnecting broken cables.
However, some of your fellow players are secretly camouflaged aliens who sabotage you: the famous Impostor. These try to kill crew members and remain unnoticed. To protect themselves, they spread misinformation and discord among the crew.
Communication and deception are the most important tools in the game. Because in discussions with the crew you decide who will be punished for his alleged murder. When all impostors are gone, the crew wins. If none of the crew are alive, the Impostors win.
Among Us even influenced the language:
Favorite for youth word 2021 comes from gaming: What does “SUS” mean?
how did it explode Among Us was actually a very nondescript game on Steam. Before his rise, only a few hundred people played at all, at least until May 2020.
As the Covid pandemic began to have a major impact around the world, some streamers on Twitch started showing Among Us on their channels. This triggered a viral wave that culminated in its all-time peak in September of the same year. There is now even a VR implementation:
This is how crazy Among Us looks in VR – Check out the gameplay trailer here
The simple idea of the game, coupled with entertaining reactions from the streamers and the drama of betrayal and deception, ensured its success – especially at a time when social contacts were becoming increasingly restricted. So, 2 years after its release, Among Us became an absolute hit almost overnight and has remained so to this day.