What Steam is talking about today: August 23, 2026
Counter-Strike 2 remains #1 on Steam Most Played on August 23. Palworld climbs from #5 on August 21 to #3. How to Fish is a new #7. Apex Legends, TBH: Task Bar Hero, and Wallpaper Engine dropped off. get_growth on Steam could not complete a 7-day window (collapsed range). The 30-day window put CS2 at 76.3 versus 82.0, down 6.95 percent, with peak players about 1.42 million versus 1.57 million.
Top trending games on Steam: August 23
Counter-Strike 2
Valve's shooter holds #1. get_growth for 30 days on Steam: value 76.3 versus 82.0 (down 6.95 percent), peak players about 1,420,896 versus 1,573,727 (down 9.71 percent). The 7-day preset collapsed to one data point and was omitted.
Dota 2
Valve's MOBA holds #2. get_growth 30-day: value 75.1 versus 63.0 (up 19.21 percent). Volume 860,019 versus 862,639 (down 0.3 percent). Same 7-day collapse as CS2.
Palworld
Pocketpair's creature survival game jumps from #5 on August 21 to #3. get_growth 30-day: value 34.4 versus 1.0 (up 3,340 percent), peak players about 956,613 versus 51,116. That 30-day window is June 1 to July 1, 2026, not an August weekend spike. No new August 23 patch note was found.
FiveM
The GTA V multiplayer platform rises from #9 on August 21 to #4. That lines up with Cyberleek GTA 6 leak traffic on Google Trends and TikTok, not a FiveM changelog dated August 23.
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS
Krafton's battle royale slips from #3 to #5. Unchanged role as a fixture. No August 23 event bulletin was found.
Bongo Cat
Irox Games' desktop cat overlay, launched March 5, 2025, sits at #6 after #4 on August 21. SteamPulse logged about 164,081 players on August 19 with a 97 percent review score. Raijin put August average daily players near 137,620.
How to Fish
A new #7 idle-fishing title. No widely reported August 23 launch feature was found. The rank is a Steam Most Played entry.
Rust
Facepunch's survival game sits at #8 after #10 on August 21. No August 23 wipe note was attached.
Project Zomboid
The zombie survival title is a new #9. No August 23 build note was found.
Marvel Rivals
NetEase's hero shooter is a new #10. No August 23 season patch was found in the fetch.
The live ranked board beyond today's top 10 is available via the Trends MCP API. Get your free API key
What changed on Steam since yesterday
No August 22 Steam daily ran.
New: How to Fish (#7), Project Zomboid (#9), Marvel Rivals (#10).
Drop-offs: Apex Legends, TBH: Task Bar Hero, Wallpaper Engine.
Big movers: Palworld #5 to #3. FiveM #9 to #4. PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS #3 to #5. Bongo Cat #4 to #6. Rust #10 to #8.
What today's Steam trends reveal
Steam's top two did not change. Palworld at #3 is the mover, and the 3,340 percent 30-day get_growth figure is a June-to-July climb (value 1.0 to 34.4), not proof of an August 23 patch. Treat that percentage as a long window, not a weekend print.
FiveM at #4 is the GTA-adjacent row on a day Cyberleek leads Google and TikTok searches. Bongo Cat at #6 is still an overlay with ~164k observed players on August 19, not a traditional match-based game. How to Fish at #7 continues the idle-utility streak that TBH occupied on August 21. See best Steam game market research tools.
Track these trends in real time with Trends MCP
This list is the August 23 get_top_trends snapshot for type Steam Most Played with limit 10. Teams that watch ranks as they move, not after a recap, can call the same feed as new rows arrive. The generating call:
{
"type": "Steam Most Played",
"limit": 10
}
See the Steam Most Played API page for source notes.