With February’s Steam Next Fest now behind us, Valve has shared its list of the 50 most-played demos from the event.
By our count, nine roguelikes and roguelites cracked the list, accounting for almost 20% of the total. The highest-ranking of these was Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors — a deckbuilding spin-off of the revolutionary bullet hell hit.
Something important to note is that we don’t know exactly how many times these games were downloaded. Instead, Valve has just provided us with a general ranking and we will have to take their word.
Ahead of Next Fest, we made a list of the best demos from the festival. This one is packed with many gems that didn’t manage to sneak into the top 50, so it’s well worth a read if you haven’t already.
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Still with us? Of course you are! If you want to keep reading about great hand-picked rogues, the following articles represent a huge collection of the best roguelike games ever made.
Next, there are genre-specific lists that delve into the best roguelike games of all types. I’ve pulled out the best examples from each category, alongside the links to more in-depth articles!
The best turn-based roguelikes: Caves of Qud | There are some seriously incredible turn-based roguelikes out there. Of all the modern games, these are the closest to the original Rogue.
Awesome first-person rogues: Gunfire Reborn | We almost went with Blue Prince for this spot, but most people checking out first-person rogues probably want to wield a gun, you know?!
Cool roguelike deckbuilders: Balatro | Sorry, Slay the Spire fans, but this poker-solitaire deckbuilder has stolen Mike’s heart and won’t give it back.
Exciting roguelike platformers: Spelunky | Now, don’t get us wrong, Dead Cells is an incredible game, especially with all the DLC switched on. But when it comes to impact, you just can’t beat Spelunky.
Amazing action-roguelites: Hades 2 | And finally, let’s wrap things up with our favourite of them all. There’s no beating the original Hades, although Hades 2 comes pretty close!
