V Rising Is Steam’s Best-Selling “New Release” Of 2022

Among all the pop culture trends and shifts over the past decade, vampires have been the most potent one. From the blockbuster movie franchise Twilight to classic video games like BloodRayne and Castlevania, the creatures have ruled pop culture.

Video games have continued this trend with titles like Vampyr, Vampire Survivors, and most notably, the 2022 title V Rising.

Still, in early access, V Rising came out on PC on May 17, 2022. The game was an instant hit and surpassed 1 million sales in a week, exceeding all expectations. Now, the survival game has set another record and become the best-selling new title of 2022 on Steam.

Major Takeaways

• V Rising is the best-selling new title of 2022 on Steam.
• The game has beaten out titles like FIFA 23, Monster Hunter: Rise, Elden Ring, and Stray.
• However, the game isn’t in the Early Access titles list, making its classification a bit confusing.

Recently, Valve released the “Best of Steam” charts for the year 2022. These charts include software sales from last year and inform us of the best-sellers in different categories. And, V Rising has won a very competitive race to be at the top of its category.

V Rising topped the list of “Top selling new releases” in these Steam charts, beating out some heavy hitters. In this list, Dying Light 2 ends up at No.2 just behind the vampire game. But, what follows these two games is what makes their performance on this chart so impressive.

FIFA 23 comes out at No.3 on this list, which is a respectable result for the yearly franchise title. However, what’s impressive is V Rising edging out such big AAA titles for the top spot in this chart. Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel is No.4 on this list, which is another interesting entry. 

2022 has had a lot of terrific games, but none of them have made more impact than Elden Ring. The game set records when it was released on every platform in the gaming world. But, it is only at No.5 in the Steam chart for top-selling games of 2022.

It is kind of surprising to see it this low, but the game not getting a DLC maybe played a part in that. This also makes V Rising’s performance look extremely impressive. You don’t see a game beating a Game of the Year winner with this ease anywhere. 

Elden Ring also doesn’t make the most played games of the 2022 chart, which again could be due to the lack of post-game content. Playtime did fall after its initial release too, but it made the list of games with the “Top Grossing Revenue” on Steam. Hence, it has been a major success, even if players haven’t spent a lot of time on it. 

V Rising also beat popular titles like Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Monster Hunter: Rise in this list. Both of these have been triumphant releases of 2022, so it gives V Rising’s position more credibility. Indie phenomenon Stray is No.8 on this list, which is another impressive milestone for the game. 

Warhammer Darktide is at No.9, while Lost Ark closes out the list at No.10, leaving V Rising at the top. A notable game missing from this is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, which does make the most played games list at No.10. However, the game is still making the big bucks as it is No.1 in the high-grossing games category, beating out Monster Hunter Rise.

So, even though it hasn’t sold too many copies to crack the top 10, the players are spending a lot of money in-game. Even though Modern Warfare II like other Call of Duty titles is primarily played on consoles, this performance on Steam is still competent. Another interesting tidbit from these lists is in the one for Early Access Games.

Vampire Survivors tops this list, and why would it not with Phil Spencer spending 200 hours on it? But, V Rising is not classified as an early access title, but rather a new release. The full game is coming in 2023 most probably, so it doesn’t matter much anyway. 

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