Cliff Notes – Portal 2 is no longer the highest rated video game on Steam
- Stardew Valley dethrones Portal 2: After 14 years, the farming sim Stardew Valley has surpassed Portal 2 as the most popular game on Steam, thanks to continuous updates and community engagement.
- Close competition: The difference in user ratings between Stardew Valley and Portal 2 is minimal, indicating that the rankings could easily change again in the future.
- Valve’s future in single-player games remains uncertain: Despite occasional hints from Valve about returning to single-player titles, no official announcements regarding new games like Portal 3 have been made.
Portal 2 is no longer the highest rated video game on Steam
GLaDOS is going to be furious (Valve)
For 14 years, there’s been no change in the most popular game on Steam, but Portal 2 has finally been dethroned – but not by a new title.
Although user ratings on other websites are often subject to review bombing and general console-warring the ones on Steam are generally considered to be pretty accurate, in large part because they get far more votes than most other equivalents.
Everyone can see the stats for how many positive reviews there’ve been but there’s no list of the most popular on Steam itself. However, a third party website has collated all the information together and offered up a top 250, which until recently had 2011 first person puzzle game Portal 2 at number one.
Clearly, everyone loves Portal, but in a shock turn of events it is no longer top dog and has instead been replaced by… 2016 title Stardew Valley.
That’s not too surprising as while Portal 2 has been pretty much trapped in amber since it came out, Stardew Valley has been receiving a steady supply of updates and fan mods ever since, even if creator Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone keeps trying to draw a line under it all.
Despite coming up on its 10th anniversary, farming sim Stardew Valley broke its own concurrent player record last year and with the release of its most recent update saw player numbers rise to a recent high of almost 150,000 players.
The difference between Portal 2 and Stardew Valley’s scores is minute, and they could easily swap places again. Although given how often Stardew Valley gets new content it’s perhaps surprising it’s taken this long to overtake Portal 2.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Number three title Terraria is also very close, although we’re going to admit we’ve never heard of People Playground at number four. It only costs £7.19 (and is 85% off at the moment, at just £1.07) and doesn’t seem to be a game at all, but some sort of sandbox environment for causing harm to stick people.
For the record, the rest of the Steam 250 top 10 is composed of Left 4 Dead 2, Vampire Survivors, Hades, Euro Truck Simulator, Schedule I, and the original Portal.
ConcernedApe is currently working on a new game called Haunted Chocolatier, although whether it’ll prove as popular as Stardew Valley is impossible to say, especially as it still doesn’t have a release date.
Although there’re occasional rumblings from Valve, indicating they might get back into making single-player games, Portal 2 still remains their last traditional one – unless you count 2020 VR title Half-Life: Alyx.
There was also tech demo Aperture Desk Job, which is set in the Portal universe and is essentially the Steam Deck equivalent of Astro’s Playroom or Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. There’s never been any serious talk of a Portal 3 though.
There have been new whispers of an imminent Half-Life 3 reveal recently, but as usual it’s not resulted in any kind of official annoucement, although given how secretive Valve can be that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s definitely not happening.
Stardew Valley is number one (ConcernedApe)
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.