'Fallout 4' Defeated by 'Counter Strike: Global Offensive' as Steam's Best-Selling Game in 2015
It's widely expected that either "Fallout 4" or "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" will win 2015's Game of the Year award. However, a recent report from HotHardware revealed that neither of these games bagged the title. Instead, the best-selling game on Steam is "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," Valve Corporation and Hidden Path Entertainment's 2012 offering.
Based on the approximated statistics indicated on SteamSpy.com and reported by HotHardware, the sales of "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" from April to December 2015 reached up to 5,634,096. "Grand Theft Auto V" follows at the second spot with 3,595,901, "Fallout 4" at third with 2,485,339, "ARK: Survival Evolved" at fourth with 2,187,649, and "Rocket League" at the fifth rank with 1,929,374.
Other games which have earned well according to Steam's stats are "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" (at the 8th spot with 1,565,606), "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" (at the 10th spot with 1,087,266), "Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain" (at the 18th spot with 788,666), and "Call of Duty: Black Ops III" (at the 22nd spot with 718,034), HotHardware listed.
Valve puts "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," or "CS: GO," on sale often, so it's expected that it automatically has a huge chance of getting good sales, the news outlet noted.
"CS: GO" is an expansion of the team-based action gameplay that was first seen in the original "Counter-Strike" that rolled out 12 years ago, Valve Software wrote. "CS: GO" is equipped with new characters, maps, and weapons and showcases updated versions of the classic "Counter-Strike" content. The latest also introduced new gameplay modes, matchmaking, and leader boards, among others.
This month, developer Valve admitted on the official "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" blog, that it made a "few mistakes" about the PC shooter's latest patch, which has been a bit controversial within the "Counter-Strike" community. In the update, a new pistol was overpowered and changes to how rifles are fired were made.
"Because we think it's valuable for players to have choices when they're thinking about how to engage an opponent, we looked at ways to make tapping/bursting a bit more appealing," Valve said in its blog post, mentioning that "spraying" is usually the most popular method of firing a rifle. "The hope was that by encouraging more deliberate firing, we would add something skillful that players could use to their advantage."
Valve admitted that the winter update for "CS: GO" possibly "changed too much too quickly," the developer's blog post added. So they have opted to release a new update that rolls back both the rifle and pistol adjustments to pre-winter update status. Valve is hoping to re-examine the issue sometime in the future.