The five most popular Steam Next Fest Demos are all multiplayer games because people crave PvP

It's the season to devour a ton of demos from upcoming games at the Steam Next Fest, and then wait with great patience for them to launch after Next Fest is over. Steam's twice-yearly event of demo extravaganza is in full swing this week, so I took a sneak peek at what was popular. It's mostly multi-player games, which shouldn't surprise me.

The top 5 Steam Next Fest demos of the week are:

1. Delta Force: A new free-to-play extraction shooter/Battlefield-like
2. Supervive is a hybrid of MOBA and Battle Royale
3. Strinova: A free-to-play anime hero shooter
4. Rivals of Aether 2 - A 2D platform fighter
5. Gladio Mori: Slow-motion physics sword dueling

This is the official tally, based on Steam's Next Fest charts for daily active players. Steam.db generates a similar list based on peak simultaneous player count. In this version, Popucom, a co-op multiplayer platformer, knocks Gladio Mori from the top 5.

Harvey Randall, who has played Supervive, says that it has the faster matches and steeper learning curve of a battle-royale. "Supervive combat takes your MOBA team fights, and turns them into pure skillshot flex offs," he says.

Delta Force has been reviewed by PC Gamer. Morgan Park tried it out during the last open beta. He liked the Battlefield-like conquest modes, but felt the guns sounded plasticky and that it couldn't match the scale and polish of Battlefield 2042. It's a no-brainer that you should try it out before the beta expires.

In recent years, it's become a given that multiplayer games will be the most popular during Next Fest. The best co-op titles aren't cheap, and gaming groups are always on the lookout for the next big thing. It's hard not to accept freebies.

I'll say that this is a little more multiplayer dominance than usual. Tiny Glade made it into the top 5 at The Next Fest, which took place in June. Naturally, another free-to play multiplayer shooter (Once Human), also took the top spot.

If you're looking for something less obvious, Robin Valentine tried Ballionaire. It is a bizarre roguelike mix of Balatro with Pachinko. Harvey Randall spent some time with Windblown, the new roguelike by Dead Cells. I guess we are still playing roguelikes here.

Steam Next Fest will run through the weekend and into early Monday morning, October 21, so you still have plenty of time to try out any games that look interesting. Steam's next themed sale will begin the week following: Steam Scream Fest, on October 28.