Total War: Rome II. Games with most playtime on Steam

Total War: Rome II was supposed to be the biggest, best, and most expansive installment of the Total War series. Players hungry for strategic approach and panache, unfortunately, did not immediately feel a sense of fulfillment. Immediately after the release, Rome II suffered from numerous bugs - errors and crashes, or cases of stupid artificial intelligence. It's a wonder that they decided to release such a monster. Even more surprising, however, is the fact that the game was ultimately able to draw players in for dozens of hours. According to data from SteamSpy, it was the part of the series that kept us with it the longest, at least on average.

However, as we all know, Rome wasn't patched right away, and it was the subsequent patches that were released over the following months that saved the game. Perhaps it was these persistent attempts to fix the title that gamers enjoyed so much? Or are fans of the series got used to the problems and just accepted them? Anyway - the huge amount of content (both official expansions and mods) and multiplayer mode still attract players to this unique position.

Factorio

Take leave before you try it.

Factorio is the work of a small Czech team, which we always describe with pleasure and always hope to encourage someone to play. The game allows you to build huge factories, endlessly transforming a few basic raw materials into increasingly complex devices.

This all leads to the construction of a space rocket and escape from an alien planet. That alone is fun for over a hundred hours, and that's just the average time players on Steam spend with this title. Looking at the reviews on this platform, you can find people who have devoted even more than three thousand hours to this work. Why? Because the factory has to grow.

It's always possible to build a bigger plant, and the further we get in the game, the more automated the processes become. We can focus on creating schematics of entire sectors of the factory, and then automatically erect the next ones like blocks, connecting them with railroad lines and streams of flying robots, to later measure the time of development of complex scientific packages and combine how to optimize it all even better. Strongly recommended.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

The doyen shows younger titles how to attract the player.

RTSs seemed like a dead genre - forgotten and abandoned. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition shows that's not entirely true. This perky old man puts the youth to shame. Today, at its peak, 24,500 people were playing the game simultaneously. For comparison: 16.5 thousand players played Cyberpunk 2077 simultaneously on Steam today at its peak.

AoEII has the power to keep you coming back and back for a long time. On average, fans spend over 60 hours each with this title, which is also better than Cyberpunk, although they are completely different games, so treat this comparison as a curiosity only.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition relies heavily on online play and despite some changes from the original, it's still a painfully classic RTS with resource-collecting workers, buildings where we recruit soldiers, and highly simplified battles.

Mount and Blade II

The medieval sandbox 2 didn't bring many new features, but it still draws players in for hours.

Mount and Blade II, after much anticipation, debuted a year ago as part of the Early Access program on Steam. It turned out to be very similar to the original. Few changes were made to it, but the whole thing is much nicer and has a lot of potential for growth. A year later, it's clear that the community of this title is still eager to play it. Thousands of players return to Mount and Blade II every day, spending an average of over 70 hours with it.

What's the fuss about? We start as a lone wanderer, recruit soldiers, buy weapons, receive quests, plunder villages and fight against increasingly powerful enemies - from village bandits to the armies of local kings.

There is no shortage of sieges, large field battles, cavalry charges, trading, or tournaments. The best part is that no one tells you what to do. We tell our own story and suffer the consequences of our own mistakes. As you can see - it's addictive.

Valheim - honorable mention

Valheim has only just made its debut, but we're already playing it big time.

Valheim is an honorable mention because it has noticeably fewer hours on the counter than the weakest games listed in this text. But - and it's a big "but" - players have spent an average of 33 hours in Valheim as of March 5, 2021. Meanwhile the game has only been available on Steam since February 2. That is, for roughly 740 hours. During those 740 hours, we slept and worked roughly 432 hours (weekends deducted). 308 hours left. This means that the average player spent more than 10% of their free time with Valheim, and that assuming they played from launch.

Of course, it is possible that over time these data will change, that the average will decrease. After all, the game is fresh, there is a craze, the media is full of news of it. On the other hand, I myself just discovered iron, so I'm probably theoretically pretty far into the game, and in fact, I still feel like I'm exploring the unknown and have a huge amount of fun ahead of me.

I just put up my first couple of portals, which seems to almost take the gameplay to a new level. These new opportunities constantly renew my interest in the game. Next, I will start erecting stone walls, which in turn will open a new chapter in terms of expanding my habitat. Don't be surprised if in six months the average rises to 100 hours instead of falling.