I had just taken a look at the Steam frontpage last night and I noticed a big banner saying “Steam Year In Review 2023”. As you might imagine, I was quite pleased to see this since I was not only curious about my statistics over the course of 2023 but also because my article “Taking A Look At My Steam Replay 2022” was one of my more popular posts and doing a follow-up makes perfect sense to me. Therefore, I thought it worth taking a look at my Steam Replay 2023 and breaking down some of the information within it. Also, as before, I’ve made my Steam Replay public so that anyone can take a look at it themselves if they are curious.
First thing to note is that the number of games that I’ve played has gone up slightly from 197 to 200 and the number of new games, those that I’ve not played before, going from 151 to 154. As before though, I do have to confess that these numbers are corrupted by the fact that I subscribe to Humble Choice and that I use a program to farm Steam cards off of these games. More accurate to look at perhaps is that I got 1854 achievements across 61 games, an increase from 1302 across 59 games last year.
The top 5 games that I played by % of playtime is also quite interesting to break down. Yakuza 5 Remastered was the game that I spent the most time on and that doesn’t surprise me too much as it’s a very large game packed with plenty of side content that kept me engaged for over 100 hours. 2023 was also the first time that I ever played an Ace Attorney game, in this case that being the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. I admit that it didn’t have the best first impression on me as I was disappointed by the fact that the first two cases reveal who the culprit is before even getting a chance to investigate. However, the world and the characters ended up becoming something that I grew entranced by and I consider my playthrough of Trials and Tribulations, the third game of the series, to be one of the most emotionally powerful experiences I’ve had in a videogame. Monster Hunter Rise was a fun experience overall but I’ll admit that I found the game to feel more repetitive than Monster Hunter World and that it dragged a bit towards the end. Still, I’m curious to someday pick up the expansion, Sunbreak, and give that a try. I got Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning as part of Humble Choice and, having heard about Kingdoms of Amalur for years, thought I’d play it. It’s definitely an enjoyable experience but it’s also something that I’d consider to be unremarkable. This mainly comes from the fact that the game does everything well but not brilliantly. I started Yakuza 6: The Song of Life soon after finishing Yakuza 5 and found it to be an enjoyable conclusion to Kiryu’s story. While it’s true that it has less content than most other Yakuza games, you can see that I still managed to get enough playtime out of it that it ended up being one of my most played games of the year.
While I had got a Steam Deck last year, it was only within the last few months and so it only accounted for 4% of my playtime in 2022. This meant that the 2023 Steam Replay would be the first time that I could see my use regarding the Steam Deck and, taking a look at the results, you can see that it’s become a key part of my gaming sessions. I only play one game at a time on the Steam Deck so it covers merely 32 games but these games make up 33% of my total playtime! You can also see that I try to mix and match long games and short games on the Steam Deck as the top 5 games, those being Monster Hunter Rise, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, Disgaea PC, Arcade Paradise and Digimon World: Next Order, make up 47% of all the Steam Deck playtime!
One thing that does seem to be confusing to me though is one inconsistency in the Steam Replay. At the top, it claims that I spent 34% of the time using a keyboard and mouse and 66% of the time using a controller but, further down in the Replay, it states that 34% of my playtime was with a controller and the top 5 games I used a controller for, those being Yakuza 5 Remastered, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Yakuza 6: The Nonary Games, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games and Celeste. There’s clearly some kind of error here so I’m not certain which is the true statement but it’s worth pointing out that last year’s replay showed a more even split of 60% keyboard and mouse and 40% controller. Still, it’s possible that the 66% with controller could be the correct one since my top 5 most played games were either on the Steam Deck or on my PC with a controller. I would still love to see Valve provide a similar breakdown with the keyboard and mouse games and hope that maybe they can do so next year.
This examination of the results of the Steam Replay has been interesting as always and, besides that odd issue with the keyboard and mouse vs. controller game time, it’s been wonderful revisiting my memories of what I’ve played and as well as learning how much I use the Steam Deck as well. Let me know your thoughts on taking a look at my Steam Replay 2023, what bits of information you found particularly interesting, what differences from last year you find notable, how you think Valve could expand and improve Steam Replay as a whole, your own Steam Replays and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.