So there’s quite a lot happening on Steam in 2026. Earlier this year, we reported that Valve has lined up an eye-watering 22 themed fests over the course of 2026. That means there’s some sort of promotion or festival every 2.4 weeks, on average, until 31st December. These themed weeks are planned to run on top of the now-traditional Next Fests (which take place in February, June, and October), and the well-received seasonal sales in spring, summer, autumn and winter, making for a grand total of 29 Steam promotions overall. Yeesh!

As hard as that may be to keep up with, we’re here to provide something of a check-in for you – a voice in the noise to make it easier to see what’s going on in the middle of this promotional melee. Right now, the February edition of Steam Next Fest is just over halfway through. There’s a lot to see, a lot to play, and a lot of data that can easily become overwhelming with a festival like this, so here’s something to make it a bit easier to parse: February’s Steam Next Fest Top 10 in terms of play hours so far:

1. Marathon
2. Burglin’ Gnomes
3. Windrose
4. Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors
5. Far Far West
6. Outbound
7. John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando
8. Wanderburg
9. Fate Trigger
10. Everything is Crab: The Animal Evolution Roguelite

This list has been provided by Valve itself, taken from data populating the platform holder’s backend. I’m not too surprised to see Marathon up the top: this past weekend saw a ‘server slam’ for the game go live, and Bungie’s latest accrued 150,000 concurrent players day one on Steam alone. This game is going to be big, I reckon.

Next up, there’s Burglin’ Gnomes, an online Co-op game about breaking into houses and causing havoc as a tiny gnome. Some may call it ‘friendslop’ (a term I vehemently dislike, but has been coined to describe titles like Peak, Among Us, Lethal Company and so on), but I think there’s a nice, chaotic charm to this title that we, as a people, frankly need right now.

Windrose is next: a survival adventure set in an alternative Age of Piracy, that’s a bit like ‘Valheim on sea’: it features the classic “build, craft, survive” formula, supported with brutal combat and procedural generation. Pirates of the Caribbean meets Sons of the Forest. Not my cup of tea, but clearly the Steam masses are chomping at the bit for this one.

Vampire Crawlers is also on the list, and as our own Bertie notes, it “turns Vampire Survivors into a dungeon-crawling card game with mixed success”. The article is worth a read if you want a more nuanced take on what this does – and doesn’t – do as a follow-up to 2021’s most unexpected hit.

Far, Far West is a “chaotic 4-player co-op shooter where cowboys, outlaws, and arcane misfits band together to tame a land gone mad”. It’s not a super deep experience, but it’s yet another title that is given life by madcap multiplayer antics in a world that gives you enough agency to run wild. Outbound continues the colourful theme, but in a more creative way: you simply build your own mobile home and take it on adventures. It’s ‘solarpunk’ in its vibe: you create green energy by harvesting from the sun, from water, from the wind. It’s a ray of hope that many of us may need after this weekend.

Next up is John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando. Ian previously gave us his thoughts on this one and you can see his nuanced take at the link: he thought that Toxic Commando brings a refreshing new perspective to a well-worn genre, that it was a “super fun, gore-soaked co-op shooter”. You can see why it’s popular.

I’m going to group Wanderbug and Everything is Crab together: the first is a “minimalist medieval roguelike” (pump it into my veins!) and the second is an action roguelike more focused on evolution and on-the-fly decision making. Both are close to my dream game, really, but I’ve not picked up either (yet) because I have a website to help run and things to do. The second I sit down on one of these, that’s it. I’m done. Gone. Sweet Fanny Adams, bye-bye!

Finally, and of course, there feels like the inevitable 3D Anime-style, hero-based tactical shooter powered by UE5. The sort of thing we’d get about four of in an ad break during The Game Awards. But hey, it’s popular, and it’s getting a lot of playtime: this Next Fest bump represents a play test for the game, and by all accounts it’s holding up well under the server strain. A friend of mine that plays a lot of this sort-of game says the special moves really make it stand out, and the gacha implementation isn’t too egregious.

Do any of these titles tickle your fancy? Have you been playing anything interesting or surprising so far in this Next Fest? Will any of these popular games be making their way onto your docket? Let me know in the comments.