Steam Next Fest is underway. The October 2026 edition opened on October 19 with more than 7,100 free demos and runs until October 26. To find the most popular ones, Output Lag tracks how many people are playing each demo through Steam’s public player count data.
The top 10 right now
As of midnight on October 20 (UTC-4), these were the demos with the most players:
- Probably Stolen, a cyberpunk shopkeeper simulator by Questing Goose Studio: 11,031
- ArcheAge Chronicles, by XLGAMES: 7,070
- Loftia, by Qloud Games: 5,452
- just volleyball, by temkosoft: 3,478
- BORE, by BavelGG: 2,877
- Frostrail, by FakeFish: 1,711
- Abyssal Lapidary, by Light Worm: 1,414
- Deadzone Rogue 2, by Prophecy Games: 1,113
- Mortuus, by Hamuno: 1,003
- Debauchery & Magic, by 3rd Shift Studios: 904
On the first afternoon, ArcheAge Chronicles was in first place with more than 18,000 players.
How to read the chart
The ranking only counts people inside a demo at that moment. It does not measure wishlists, sales or followers, so it changes hour by hour and favours games that are easy to start. Output Lag checks active demos every hour and the whole festival every four hours.
This article was written with AI assistance from the sources linked above.
