For the past few months I have been looking into the most popular turn-based Steam releases of each month. We often hear a lot about certain titles, but I wanted to know if there were any sleeper hits or games popping off in other regions that we didn’t know about. For the past month I was busy being on holiday, eating lots of food and playing Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader on my Steam Deck so we’re a bit late for December’s releases. Instead, I am going to do a Top 10 of the year to join in on everyone else publishing yearly lists.
Normal rules apply. This is based on an aggregate of estimated copies sold from several sites[1]. Free 2 Play games are excluded, adult games are excluded and the game must be released in 2024. The game must have a turn-based Steam tag, and some may be excluded at my discretion if I don’t feel they are turn-based despite the tag; looking at you, Veilguard!!
Now, the actual highest-selling turn-based Steam game of 2024, based on Steam’s own review, is Baldur’s Gate 3, which is a crazy fact in itself, but we will be excluding it from this list as a 2023 release. Will your favorite game be in the top 10? Will any surprise you? Let’s get a few honorable mentions out of the way first:
Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties:- A free addition to Total War: Pharoah released in 2024, if I was taking the list at face value this would just about creep onto the bottom but it was given free to all existing owners and you have to purchase the original game released in 2023 to get it. The dynasties pack may have shifted a lot of copies, it’s hard to tell, but because of the above facts I have excluded it.
Ballionaire:- Possibly one of the biggest recent successes, if I had done a December list this would have been top and it was sitting at #13 on the overall year list despite the fact it had an early December release. It’s likely to sell considerably better than some of the bottom entries on this list with time but is still a phenomenal success now.
With that said, on to the top 10!
10) Megaloot
Starting off with a game I had not even heard of, not sure how this one completely slipped my radar. Released in late August by a solo developer, Megaloot would proceed to sell 100k copies in the 2 weeks following its release, allowing it to creep onto this list in 10th place. It joins what seems to be a growing trend of inventory management games (and it’s not the only one on this list) and blends it with addictive roguelite gameplay.
Recent opinions seem a bit divided on the title; however, it seems to have had a good bit of coverage around launch, and the bargain price point likely led to a lot of people picking this one up out of curiosity as well as it having quite a following in Germany specifically for some reason.
9) 古龙风云录 (Ancient Dragon Chronicles)
Well, I hadn’t heard of this one either, but this time, it’s excusable. The game actually isn’t available in English, and I have run it through a few translators to get what I believe is a consensus on the English translation, but I can only apologize if I am incorrect.
As far as I can tell, the game is based on the Wuxia novels of author Gu Long and is a spiritual successor to a cult classic game from 2001 called “Heroes of Gu Long” that never made it to the West. Sadly, this game also has the distinction of being the poorest reviewed title on this list by a margin, with reviews commenting on bugs and middling gameplay. That didn’t stop it from selling an estimated 150k+ copies, however, showing the power of the Chinese audience in isolation.
8) Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
Ok, the sold copy estimates for this one vary wildly so I am taking a bit of a guess, just know it could slot slightly further up or down this list. If we were including sales across all platforms, this would undoubtedly spike higher up, though.
Within a week of release, it was the highest-selling game in Japan for the whole year. It’s also a relatively late release in the year, with it topping my November sales list, although I would like to reiterate the name still needs some work. Regardless, it’s a beloved franchise, and while it’s not one I have ever been close to personally, I am not surprised to see it on the list.
7) Tactical Breach Wizards
Certainly one of the indie darlings of 2024. I am so happy to see Tactical Breach Wizards on this list because I adore pretty much everything developer Suspicious Developments put out. Other people clearly agree because it shares the trophy for highest review score on this list with out #1 spot.
Tactical Breach Wizards also hit 100k copies sold within a month of its release, and I have seen it pop up on a number of top-of-the-year lists speaking to its overall quality. On top of that, I think we can also just all agree that it’s just a fantastic premise for a game.
6) Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
We are getting into spoilers for the rest of the list here, but if there is one tip I have taken away for making a commercially successful turn-based game in 2024, it’s to make it Persona related or adjacent. Maybe I should be saying Shin Megami Tensei is related, as the Persona games were the initial spin-off, but they have definitely taken on a life of their own by now.
SMT V got its original release all the way back in 2021 on the Switch, with the expanded “Vengeance” version coming out in 2024 and landing on Consoles and PC. It reportedly boasts a huge 500k sales within 3 days of release, although the majority of these were on console, and most sites are predicting around 200-250k PC sales at the current time, so it doesn’t go further up this list.
5) Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
We have seen a lot of games in recent years make the shift away from being turn based so when Yakuza changed it’s combat in it’s 2021 Like a Dragon release, I was surprised to see them pivot to more JRPG inspired turn based combat and even more surprised to see the game did so well. It’s perhaps then less of a surprise that Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth sold well.
1 million copies in a week well. While a lot of this was on console, it’s still predicted to have shifted 400-500k PC copies, and with the release of the even more bombastic Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii in February, I highly suspect the next game will be high on next year’s chart too.
4) Backpack Battles – EARLY ACCESS
Probably the biggest surprise on this list. Steam has shown me this game a lot, so I assumed it did well, but I underestimated the level of sales this game has drawn in. Within TWO WEEKS of launch, Backpack Battles had sold a mind-boggling 500k copies, and despite releasing early in the year, it still has around 3000 concurrent players as of my typing this article.
The game seems to have found great success in both eastern and western markers by mixing inventory management and auto-battling. It has done all this despite being an early access release, so it’s likely to receive another sales bump on the full release. Overshadowed by some of the true titans of the year but a huge success story. The developer’s previous title is sitting at 52 reviews…. Backpack battles is closing in on 13,000, talk about a glow up.
3) Metaphor: ReFantazio
I think we are out of the “surprise entries” section now, and turn-based fans will realize there are three huge names missing from this list that all released to critical acclaim in 2024. Metaphor: ReFantazio is our second Atlus Persona-esque title on the list.
Across all platforms, it managed to shift 1 million copies… in a single day, making it ATLUS’s fastest-selling title of all time. Unsurprisingly, it also topped my October list and received critical accolades across the board, including Game of the Year awards from IGN, AP News, and others. Mixing the RPG and social mechanics of Persona games with a brand-new fantasy world and beautiful presentation, I am not surprised Metaphor makes its way to the Bronze spot.
2) Persona 3 Reload
Honestly this one is neck and neck with Metaphor, if they were released at the same time Metaphor would undoubtedly get the silver medal but the February release is working in Persona 3 Reload’s favour. A remake of the 2006 JRP release, ATLUS certainly went the extra mile to make this version look great and fit in with the modern titles.
After being introduced to the series with Persona 4 Golden on my Playstation Vita many years ago, I went back and played Persona 3 and loved its haunting atmosphere, so I am glad to see a remake has done it justice.
At the time of its release, it sold 1 million copies in a week across all platforms, making it the fast-selling Atlus title before Metaphor knocked it off the throne later in the year but all this reinforces the idea that when it comes to big budget JRPG’s, Atlus is the current king and have managed to break their way into the western market to critical acclaim.
1) Balatro
The undisputed king of 2024 as far as games outside of the AAA sphere go. While it is a great shame of mine that I still have not played Balatro, I’m not sure I want to at this point. Every time I see someone purchase the game, it’s alongside some screenshot explaining we won’t see them for a week or concerns of ongoing addiction.
Balatro was released in late February of 2024, and it has more people currently playing it than every other title on this list… combined…, and it’s not close. It sold 250,000 copies in the first 3 days… and then just continued skyrocketing upwards with an announcement in December confirming the game had sold a gargantuan 3.5 million copies. While part of this can be attributed to the mobile release, it’s still expected to have sold 2.5mil+ on PC and has been one of the most influential games of the year. I take my (joker) hat off to LocalThunk and offer yet another congrats on the success.
And that’s the list, how many have you played? Any predictions for the next year? I won’t be giving anyone points for guessing Civ 7 in the top spot and both Like a Dragon and Dragon Quest are almost guaranteed another entry but maybe we’ll get another Balatro that takes the world by storm.
[1] Gamalytic was used as a starting point, Gamalytic numbers were then checked against other sites listed on SteamDB. Where there was a large variance between sites I used an average along with any news I could find around sales numbers to place a title.
