The 10 most played and most popular games of 2022

With 2022 coming to a close, we can safely say that it was a great year for gaming. With several new game launches such as Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarök instantly rising to the ranks of Game of the Year contenders, others didn’t do all too well. Nevertheless, the gaming scene has never looked stronger than it has this year and there are multiple reasons why this has happened.

This is down to the popularity of a few games that have skyrocketed over the years, creating a strong presence in the overall gaming scene. While none of the single-player games have made it to this list, the multiplayer scene is going strong, with a noticeable esports presence in several of the choices listed below.

We have curated the top 10 best-performing games in 2022 based on the overall player base for these games over their lifespans. All of these games have exploded in popularity over the years, garnering a loyal player base that comes back to the game every single day.

Apex Legends

One of the most played games this year is Respawn Entertainment’s magnum opus, Apex Legends. It is a free-to-play, battle-royale-style shooter game that was released on several platforms such as PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and the Nintendo Switch, with crossplay enabled by default. The game became so popular that a mobile version was developed this year, taking the already huge player base to new heights.

With many players initially commenting that Apex Legends was a Fortnite clone, those claims were quickly put to rest as the game rolled out additional updates, defining it and giving the game its own identity. This was evident when the game drew over two million players during its first month of launch and only kept getting bigger over time where it comfortably sits at over 60 million players in 2022.

Call of Duty: Warzone

Call of Duty: Warzone, often abbreviated to CoD: Warzone, is the premier first-person battle-royale game played today. Coming from a long line of Call of Duty games released back in 2003, Warzone continues the tradition of its predecessors by focusing on the variety of weaponry and gadgets available to do battle with. The fun, chaotic nature of the game has drawn in over 90 million players.

Since most of the Call of Duty games are first-person shooters without a battle-royale theme, Warzone is considered to be the spiritual successor to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and its “Blackout” mode. Being a free-to-play game has only increased the popularity of the game and the franchise as a whole, bringing back casual and hardcore players to the series. Its availability on various platforms is a big plus as well.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike, the game which brought prominence to Valve as a gaming platform, continued its rise through the ranks, spawning two sequels: Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The final game in the series, abbreviated as CS:GO took the franchise to even greater heights, boasting over 30 million players in 2022.

While not a battle-royale game, this classic team-based first-person shooter game ticks all the boxes of players’ wants from a tactical standpoint. Each side has its own playstyle and objectives to win the match with relatively short rounds, thus keeping players fresh between matches. The series’ widespread popularity has led it to a peak of 1.3 million concurrent players back in 2020, with the player base still maintaining an average of close to a million concurrent players throughout 2022.

Fortnite

Fortnite is Epic Games’ crowning glory, with many players claiming the game pioneered the popular battle-royale genre today. Whether you agree with this statement or not, the game is currently second in the top three most popular games played in 2022. This statistic is supported by the game’s massive player base of over 250 million players as we speak.

Seemingly following a pattern here, the game’s concurrent player count peaked in 2020 with over 12 million players active during Travis Scott’s Astronomical Concert. The game also has three distinct modes for players to play. If you get bored of the battle royale combat, which is one of the modes, you can either choose to play Fortnite: Save the World which is a tower defense mode, or Fortnite Creative which is a sandbox mode that allows you to freely create worlds.

Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact is Korean developer miHoYo’s best-selling and most-played game in the HoYoverse. It is a free-to-play open-world RPG that got its start during the dark days of 2020. With a charming anime art style and simplistic controls, the game is simple enough for players to get into and enjoy. New content is consistently being added through events and updates that make playing Genshin Impact a fresh experience no matter when you start.

The game has a totally original story that miHoYo is constantly developing with new chapters being added through various updates over the last two years. These story updates also involve map expansion, leading to new quests and new regions being added to the game to support the storyline. The player base only keeps growing more enamored with the game, with over 60 million players playing this year.

League of Legends

The first of two of Riot Games’ offerings on this list, League of Legends is undoubtedly the most popular MOBA of today. This point is proven by its massive player base of over 100 million players with a peak of eight million concurrent players playing in 2019 with no signs of it slowing down any time soon. This is down to the game’s active and fast playstyle compared to several of the other MOBA games of today such as Dota 2 and Smite.

While initially called a clone of the original Dota: Allstars, the game quickly carved out a name for itself under the watchful eye of Steve “Guinsoo” Feak, who was previously a developer of Dota: Allstars. Ever since his departure in 2016, Riot Games has boosted the popularity of League of Legends even further through various music videos, a competitive esports scene, and one of the most popular, highly-acclaimed Netflix series Arcane.

Minecraft

Minecraft is a throwback to the old, classic sandbox-style games of the ’80s and early ’90s. Created by Mojang Studios, the game offers true freedom to all of its players, allowing them to do whatever they want within the world they spawn into. Since its humble release back in 2009, the game steamrolled in popularity till it became the best-selling game of all time with a player base of over 150 million players. The popularity of the game has seen it get ported to several platforms over the years.

Players start off with nothing in a procedurally-generated block-style 3D world and they have to work their way up. You can collect resources found naturally in the world and use them to build up, get better tools, build bigger structures, and eventually automate a lot of your production. The game also features multiplayer and access to lots of user-created custom content that you can add to your world, allowing for even greater freedom and creativity.

PUBG: Battlegrounds

PUBG: Battlegrounds was an instant hit when it was released back in 2017. The game is free-to-play and was inspired by the Japanese cult classic film Battle Royale, which was the basis of the gameplay design and aesthetic choices for PUBG. Just like the film it was inspired by, the game turned out to have its own cult following, with over 350 million players, making it the most-played game in 2022.

The immense popularity of the game spawned several weaker clones of the game which didn’t perform too well, except for Epic Games’ Fortnite, which is the only battle royale game that can still compete with PUBG. Despite the rise of Fortnite, it was never truly a threat to PUBG, with its popularity rising even higher after its release on several platforms, especially the highly accessible mobile platforms.

Roblox

Roblox is a unique entry in this list because it is not exactly a game by itself, but a platform for players to develop their own games in a fairly simplified manner. This has led to several players creating their own games that have become popular on Roblox which have all drawn a great player base in total. The cumulative player base on Roblox has crossed over 200 million players that use the platform to create their own games or play several popular user-created games.

Everything on Roblox is entirely free-to-play, although microtransactions are an option. If you choose not to spend real money, you can earn Robux instead for all of your financial needs. The platform itself was released back in 2006 and was relatively less popular till the mid-2010s when it slowly started to gain momentum. Roblox finally exploded in popularity in 2020, leading to the great success the platform sees today.

VALORANT

The second of Riot Games’ offerings on this list, VALORANT is relatively newer compared to League of Legends. As such, the player base is not as developed as League‘s, amassing over 20 million players which is still an impressive number for a game released a little over two years ago. The game is highly inspired by Valve’s Counter-Strike series and it presents that through several in-game mechanics such as the familiar buy menu, spray patterns, and shooting inaccuracy while moving.

The popularity of VALORANT was then further bolstered by its strong esports scene which picked up within the first year of the game’s launch. With the game being a prime choice for several streamers all over the world, it is only a matter of time before VALORANT starts climbing the ranks of the tactical shooter genre.