The Steam Summer Sale once again made a strong impact on gamers, according to community site Raptr‘s Most Played Games of July 2013.
Steam and other seasonal deals from outlets like Gamestop provided significant increases in gameplay between June and July for several titles — including Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360), Skyrim (PC), Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360), and Civilization V (PC).
However a number of online titles and free-to-play games experienced a hit. After Rift went free-to-play in June, its popularity tailed off allowing League of Legends and Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Xbox 360) to reclaim the top spots. Notably, League of Legends‘ gameplay dipped six percent when compared to June — the game’s first gameplay decrease since February.
Raptr suggests that sales such as Steam‘s summer sale and other recent deals have pulled consumers away from their established games so that they try less-familiar titles at a lower price — and perhaps a lower risk of dissatisfaction. Even one of gaming’s hottest ticketed items, DOTA 2, which had its beta lifted in June, experienced only a 1.7 percent gameplay increase in July.
Speaking of popular games, the world’s most popular sports game, FIFA 13, experienced the largest drop-off from 6th to 10th — most likely due to gamers anticipating the upcoming next installment.
Raptr gathers game data for its Most Played lists from its 18 million member community across PC and Xbox 360 platforms; Sony and Nintendo systems do not enable game data to be shared publicly.
What other games made the top 20? Have a look below.
For the top 20’s for PC and Xbox 360 exclusively, head on over to Raptr.com.
Which of your games did you find yourself spending time away from after the Steam Summer Sale? Let’s hear about it!
