Here are Steam's best-selling new releases for April

Are you curious about which games were the best-selling new releases on Steam for the month of April? So was Valve, so it decided to find out. 

"We are continually fascinated by the number of amazing games coming out on Steam each month and how much variety there is in what becomes popular," Valve wrote in a new blog post. "In any given month, the most popular new releases represent a wide variety of styles, genres, and themes. They may be worldwide hits or they may have a stronger audience only in particular region." 

The list is not a straight rundown of the top-20 moneymakers for the month—Vacation Simulator (probably) did not outsell Mortal Kombat 11. Instead, Valve looked at the revenue earned by every new game in April during the first two weeks of release to determine the top 20 sellers, and then sorted the list by release date. 

This is what came out the other end: 

  • Totally Accurate Battle Simulator – April 1
  • Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission – April 4
  • Islanders – April 4
  • Marz: Tactical Base Defense – April 4
  • Supraland – April 5
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy – April 9
  • Vacation Simulator – April 9
  • Zanki Zero: Last Beginning – April 10
  • Pathway – April 11
  • Weedcraft Inc – April 11
  • Staxel – April 11
  • One Finger Death Punch 2 – April 15
  • Forager – April 18
  • Pagan Online – April 18
  • Katana Zero – April 18
  • Driftland: The Magic Revival – April 18
  • Paper Dolls Original – April 19
  • Mortal Kombat 11 – April 23
  • Imperator: Rome – April 25
  • Mordhau – April 29

Even though it's a bit disappointing that we don't have actual revenue figures (so we can't say for certain whether Vacation Simulator didn't outsell Mortal Kombat 11), the breadth of the list makes it interesting. 

Mortal Kombat is a no-brainer and games like Totally Accurate Battle Simulator and Katana Zero are pretty well known. But Zanki Zero, Marz, and Paper Dolls Original are considerably more niche. It's good to see that such a diverse range of games is able to find an audience on Steam.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.