It turns out that people love playing online games. Whether it’s free-to-play games, mobile strategy games, online gambling games or intense FPS games; people love downloading them and playing for hours on end. We’ve been treated to a host of great games over the years across loads of genres, but which ones are the most popular?
After many hours of research, we discovered five of the most-played games that ever existed – based on downloads or estimated player counts. Here they are:
1) Candy Crush
Candy Crush is the biggest mobile game of all time and the video game with the most overall downloads. It’s a highly addictive puzzle game that helps you waste hours on commutes to and from work. Over 2.5 billion people have downloaded it over time and part of its popularity is down to the universal appeal of the game.
Despite being overly colourful, it appeals to everyone thanks to the simplistic puzzle element. People love trying to line up different candies and getting the lines to blow. Older generations download and play it arguably more than younger ones. Of course, nobody knows the active player count but it’s assumed that few mobile games come close to Candy Crush in terms of popularity.
2) PUBG
Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds – or PUBG as it is commonly known – is the most downloaded and played PC game ever. This probably comes as a shock for many of you as you expected the likes of World of Warcraft or even Fortnite to claim this title. PUBG was released in 2017 and has gone on to be downloaded over 1.2 billion times.
That’s an absurd amount of downloads, especially for a game that probably doesn’t get the same attention as others in its genre. You see, it’s a Battle Royale game – like Fortnite, Apex Legends and Warzone – where you fight against other players on a large map. The last player (or team) to survive wins. This genre exploded around 2019-20 but somehow PUBG has amassed way more downloads than all the other games mentioned above.
It’s something of an enigma, but the downloads don’t lie. Fans of other Battle Royale titles will likely point to the likes of Fortnite as having more active players, which is true. More people currently play Fortnite than PUBG, but the latter is still the most downloaded PC game out there!
3) Starburst
Stepping into the realm of igaming and Starburst slots is considered by many to be the biggest and most popular online slot title that ever existed. You can play it at virtually all online gambling sites, including these non GamStop casinos UK from CasinoGam. It was released all the way back in 2012 and is still at the top of every casino’s gaming charts.
Nobody can quite figure out why Starburst has seen such popularity compared with other slots, but the player count is massive. It’s estimated that hundreds of millions of people have played this game over the last 12 years – and the figures keep rising.
4) Minecraft
The longevity of Minecraft needs to be studied. Released in 2009 it’s been downloaded by over 730 million players – and retains over 166 million monthly active users. People love this game and the unique sandbox style hasn’t been replicated by any other game since. Some have tried to incorporate elements of Minecraft in their games, but nothing beats the ability to spend hours mining, building crazy structures or going on mob raids.
Minecraft is loved by the younger generation so it will always be popular – though older gamers still dip into it now and then. There’s a well-known meme in the gaming community that everyone has at least two weeks every year where they get the urge to download and play Minecraft again.
5) CrossFire
Most Western audiences might not know CrossFire exists. It’s an FPS game with over a billion downloads but gamers in Europe or the US are more likely to know of Counter-Strike, CoD or even the Rainbow Six franchise.
The series launched in 2007 and is a massive hit in Asia, particularly South Korea. That’s what accounts for its massive number of downloads and a weighty active monthly player base. It’s interesting to see a game like this be so popular yet also be so unknown.
We can think of many honourable mentions that deserve a spot on this list. Over 300 million people have Fortnite accounts, Among Us still gets hundreds of millions of monthly players and classic games like Microsoft Solitaire will always be popular. Gaming has evolved a lot over the years – it’s weird to think that a game that hasn’t been released yet could one day surpass all the titles above.