Steam week in review: Another online shooter winds down weeks after launch, as robot cowboys take over

It's been a rough year for new multiplayer games but then, the same was true in 2025. By now it's taken for granted that a long in-development project released by major publishers is not guaranteed success. Not only that, what hits is wildly unpredictable—exemplified by the likes of Peak and Phasmophobia—and success rarely corresponds with the development budget involved.

This week's case in point: Far Far West. It's an early access cooperative shooter taking cues from Left 4 Dead and Vermintide, and while it doesn't have a yee-haw button people seem to love it. (It probably helps that it has a singleplayer component as well.)

It's developed by Evil Raptor, a small eight person studio from France. Its Steam page doesn't scream "big hit" but it nevertheless has been, in its launch week at least: at time of writing it's the third best selling game on Steam in terms of revenue, beaten only by Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era and Counter-Strike 2. As I write, 47,300 people are playing it. It's yet more proof that big indie hits don't follow the kind of logic taken for granted five years ago.

Take Last Flag for instance, a third-person 5v5 shooter with MOBA elements released on April 15. Unfortunately for its creators Night Street Games, it hasn't found an audience. Its all-time concurrent players record is 558 and it's currently sitting on 35 players. That's not a win.

I daresay if you'd shown a big indie publisher or blockbuster exec Far Far West and Last Flag next to each other in 2015, the latter would suggest itself as the "hit" while the former a non-starter.

Apparently Last Flag's a lot of fun (I know some of my PC Gamer colleagues enjoyed it), but it's not proven successful enough to warrant ongoing support: the studio announced at the weekend that "our player count is not currently where we need it to be to support additional development beyond our upcoming planned patches".

In 2026 it's hard to look at something like Last Flag and see success. The art style channels Pixar and Fortnite in a way that screams "we don't have an art style" or, "we're making this game for everyone / no one". Of course, it's nearly impossible to develop big games with a knowledge of where the zeitgeist will be in three or four years, which is part of the reason why the likes of Peak prove so successful: it was made in four weeks by a bunch of enthusiastic devs who didn't need to rely on huge early takings.

In a rare and welcome move, Night Street Games wants to keep the game playable even if major updates aren't likely. "Our focus will shift to replayability, community support, and empowering our players to write the next chapter of Last Flag with persistent lobbies and unique game rules inspired by some of the games we love like GoldenEye, Team Fortress 2, and Super Smash Bros. We don’t want to kill our game—we want to give it to the community who helped us get here."

Steam releases its top sellers charts on Wednesdays, so it's too early to see how Far Far West and the new HoMM did across their full launch weeks. The April 21-28 period below is, well, pretty much as you'd expect:

Rank

Game

1

Counter-Strike 2

2

Windrose

3

Steam Deck

4

Pragmata

5

Marvel Rivals

6

Vampire Crawlers

7

Crimson Desert

8

Overwatch

9

Forza Horizon 6

10

Apex Legends

Aside from Far Far West and the new HoMM game there were a few other big first week hits: Game With Your Friends is a testament to the ongoing relevance of friendslop, while Invincible Vs—a 3v3 2.5D fighter—is also doing decently.

Notable for its absence in the rolling revenue list is s&box, the new game creation platform from the creators of Garry's Mod and Rust. It made $1 million on launch day according to Facepunch Studios, but I am a touch surprised it hasn't done better than a zany four-player shooter by an unknown studio. Morgan Park has some interesting thoughts on how the landscape has changed since the heady days of GMod.

Sledding Game | May 1

An early access downhill sledding game that adopts the happy-go-lucky lo-fi look of other modern casual multiplayer games likes Peak and RV There Yet. It's a race to reach the bottom first, but watch out because oppoents can sled into you, throwing you wildly off course thanks to some comedically over-amped physics.

Forbidden Solitaire | May 1

Creepypasta and everyone' favourite Windows 95 pack-in, together at last. Forbidden Solitaire is about browsing the dubious contents of a 1995 CD-ROM game. Yes, there's actual solitaire, but there's also hectic almost-FMV graphics and cutscenes that look like the last thing you see before you die at the hands of the murderous guy who squats the nearby Blockbuster ruin.

Scooterflow | April 30

A freestyle scooter sim for folk who have always wanted that. It may look like Tony Hawk but it's a far sight more complicated, and the physics are designed to fairly perfectly simulate what it's like to ride these things. Also, the skateparks are modelled 1:1 on actual, real life locales.

Ecto | April 29

Here's a cool first-person 3D platformer about bunnyhoppin' around in nonsensical landscapes. The point is the collect enough "star fragments" to proceed to the next level, but you might as well take your time because there's a lot to interact with in this freebie.

Does what it says on the tin. Also you can Tokyo Drift a piglet. - Gargaj on Adorable Adventures