We present you a new list of revenue leaders in the Steam digital service. By the way, the beginning of winter brought a lot of surprises, although everything is stable at altitude. To tell the truth, even the launch of a large—scale winter sale — which, let me remind you, began on December 18 and will last until January 5, 2026 – could not displace the tactical shooter Counter-Strike 2 from the first place. Valve, apparently, holds the leadership with an iron grip.
In addition to this, the Steam Deck device and the ambitious ARC Raiders shooter project, which everyone is talking about now, broke into the top three.
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Battlefield Legacy: How DICE’s Experience Helped Create a Unique Arc Raiders Visual
In truth, the success of ARC Raiders was a foregone conclusion — after all, the Embark Studios team is behind the project. These guys, in fact, come from the legendary DICE, and they brought with them all the crazy knowledge about destructibility that we saw in Battlefield. I must say that the transition to the Unreal Engine 5 engine allowed them to roll out a picture of the “photoreal” level, while not killing the performance in the trash. Each shootout, by the way, physically changes the map — and it looks powerful.
Battlefield Destructibility technologies in the projects of Embark Studios
DICE developers, in fact, have always been the kings of chaos: when walls crumble from a single grenade, it’s their handwriting. The same artists and engineers who created BF1 and BF2042 are currently working at Embark Studios, so it’s no surprise that building debris has a real impact on gameplay in their new cooperative shooter. Along the way, players have to constantly improvise — old shelters simply disappear under fire.
Unreal Engine 5 optimization and RTXGI lighting implementation
The choice of Unreal Engine 5 was deliberate — the developers implemented RTXGI global lighting, abandoning overly heavy technologies like Lumen or Nanite. Apparently, the experience of the optimization wars in DICE has taught them that stable 60+ FPS is more important than excessive detail of each pebble. As a result, dust storms and the setting sun in the Buried City location create a top—of-the-line atmosphere – to be honest, the threat from ARC robots is felt much more acutely in this light.
Art design features and visual effects in ARC Raiders
The visual of the game masterfully mixes the aesthetics of the post-apocalypse with alien horror. Rusty ruins illuminated by dynamic light look cool, especially at high settings with RTX and DLSS enabled. In fact, Embark took all the best from their previous hit The Finals — the emphasis on verticality and excellent readability of space — and transferred it to new maps.
Destructibility as the basis of gameplay
Unlike the static worlds of competitors, in ARC Raiders you can smash everything from small boxes to huge bridges. This is a direct legacy of DICE — in the same way destruction changed tactics in Battlefield. In fact, the physics of the debris here can both save your life during a raid on a queen-type boss ARC, and block the escape route. It is logical that players should take this into account when positioning — one explosion can completely open your flank.
Advantages of the graphic component and location of Buried City
The experience of Embark Studios itself has turned the lessons of the past into a true benchmark for UE5. Graphics, by the way, do not mindlessly devour resources, and destructibility really serves the gameplay. Locations like Buried City, in fact, evolve right during the match — this gives a huge replayability without any procedural generation.
Steam Sales Leaders and the start of The Steam Awards
It’s worth considering that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Where Winds Meet are also in the top 5 of the Steam chart, projects that are clearly worth following. In parallel with the sale, by the way, Valve launched voting for The Steam Awards. It will last until January 3, and the results will be announced at 21:00 Moscow time. It should be taken into account without explanation — the winter period this year turned out to be really hot for all fans of numbers and esports driving. Everything is very meaningful.
