Pull the live Steam Most Played board as JSON, then measure monthly concurrent-player growth for any game name through the steam source.
Live data as of 2026-07-31
The Steam Most Played API on Trends MCP returns the live concurrent-player leaderboard through get_top_trends with type Steam Most Played, then optional monthly growth through source steam. From the July 31 2026 scan, Counter-Strike 2 held rank 1, Dota 2 rank 2, and Palworld rank 3 across 25 returned rows. Growth follow-ups use monthly points: Counter-Strike 2 peak volume was 1,573,727 on the June 1 2026 observation used for 30-day math. Free tier access is 100 requests per month.
From the Trends MCP scan of July 31 2026 (as_of_ts 2026-07-31T04:01:41+00:00), the Steam Most Played board and steam growth follow-ups:
| Rank | Game | Growth note (source steam) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Counter-Strike 2 | 30D index -1.68% (83.4->82.0); volume 1,489,217->1,573,727 (+5.67%) |
| 2 | Dota 2 | 30D index +11.7% (56.4->63.0); volume 664,213->862,639 (+29.87%) |
| 3 | Palworld | 30D index +900.0% (0.1->1.0); volume 30,518->51,116 (+67.49%) |
| 4 | TBH: Task Bar Hero | Live board only; get_growth returned no_data |
| 5 | PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS | Live board rank 5 |
| 6 | Bongo Cat | 30D index +13.7% (85.4->97.1); volume 182,047->180,178 (-1.03%) |
| 7 | FiveM | Live board rank 7 |
| 8 | Marvel Rivals | 30D index +56.25% (1.6->2.5); volume 131,986->129,219 (-2.1%) |
| 9 | EA SPORTS FC 26 | Live board rank 9 |
| 10 | Rust | Live board rank 10 |
| 16 | Slay the Spire 2 | Live board only; get_growth returned no_data |
| 25 | Team Fortress 2 | Live board rank 25 |
Dota 2 also posted +15.38% on the 12-month index (54.6 to 63.0) with volume growth +32.66% (650,259 to 862,639). Palworld 3-month volume slipped 3.84% (53,156 to 51,116) even while the 30-day index exploded off a 0.1 baseline. Index percent and volume percent can disagree; quote both.
The board call needs no keyword. The growth call needs the Steam display name. Steam store search takes the first match, so prefer unambiguous titles such as Counter-Strike 2 over short nicknames.
{
"mode": "get_top_trends",
"type": "Steam Most Played",
"limit": 25
}
{
"mode": "get_growth",
"source": "steam",
"keyword": "Dota 2",
"percent_growth": ["30D", "3M", "12M"]
}
7-day presets often collapse on Steam because the series is monthly. In this run, 7D returned collapsed_range for Counter-Strike 2, Palworld, Marvel Rivals, and Bongo Cat. Prefer 30D, 3M, and 12M for Steam growth until daily history is available for a title.
Normalized scores answer relative heat. Absolute volume answers size. Counter-Strike 2 index fell 1.68% over 30 days while peak volume rose 5.67% to 1,573,727. Marvel Rivals index jumped 56.25% over 30 days while volume dipped 2.1% to 129,219. Palworld index +900.0% over 30 days looks sensational next to volume +67.49% because the baseline index was 0.1.
Bongo Cat shows the inverse pattern useful for hype checks. Index rose 13.7% over 30 days to 97.1, yet volume fell 1.03% (182,047 to 180,178). Over 3 months the index rose 18.27% (82.1 to 97.1) and volume rose 3.94% (173,349 to 180,178). High index with flat volume means the title is hot relative to its own history, not necessarily gaining new concurrent players.
Live ranks update on the feed cadence. Growth history can lag or miss titles. On July 31 2026, Slay the Spire 2 held Most Played rank 16 with no steam time series. TBH: Task Bar Hero held rank 4 with the same no_data response. Those rows still belong in the live table; they simply cannot support a percent-growth claim yet.
Counter-Strike 2 3-month index fell 14.32% (95.7 to 82.0) with volume -8.38% (1,717,624 to 1,573,727), while it remained rank 1 on the live board. Rank stability at the top can coexist with a multi-month volume fade. Researchers who only scrape the public Steam charts miss that split unless they keep history; Trends MCP stores the series behind get_growth and get_time_series.
Game marketers watch ranks 1 through 10 for launch windows and competitor spikes. On July 31 2026 the top 10 mixed evergreen shooters (Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege at rank 13) with breakouts (Palworld at 3, Bongo Cat at 6, Marvel Rivals at 8). Investors and fund analysts treat concurrent volume as an attention proxy next to search sources on the YouTube trends page and package download curves on the npm trends page.
A short workflow: pull 25 Most Played rows at a fixed UTC hour, keep the top 15, then run steam growth on titles that already resolve. Skip no_data names until history appears. Five successful growth calls plus one board call fits inside the free monthly allowance when sampling a few times per week.
Steam growth keywords must be display names, not App IDs. Ambiguous names resolve to the first Steam store search hit, which can be the wrong game. Volume fields are peak players for the observation point; value fields are normalized average players on a 0-100 scale. Do not treat index percent as a player-count percent.
History depth varies. Dota 2 returned 168 data points in metadata; Marvel Rivals returned 19; Bongo Cat returned 16. Short series make 12-month windows unavailable or noisy. Live board labels can include trademark symbols (EA SPORTS FC 26, Apex Legends); pass the name the feed returns when retrying growth.
Free tier is 100 requests per month. Starter is $19 per month for 1,000 requests, Pro $49 for 5,000, Business $199 for 25,000, with 20% off on annual billing. Confirm current limits on pricing. Authenticate with a bearer key against https://api.trendsmcp.ai/api, or connect MCP clients through the docs. For broader free-tier comparisons across sources, see the free trends API page.
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