Icarus | The Ancient Gaming Noob

We have arrived at that grim first Monday of the new year. Here it is cold and wet and gray out and it is time to get back to work and for some reason the state likes to schedule a whole bunch of things to happen on the first Monday of the month so I have a mound of problems on my plate today.

And on top of that, Steam’s Winter Sale is wrapping up… will have wrapped up by the time this post goes live. So it goes.

Steam Winter Sale 2025

But what is a winter sale but a slight turning of the dial from the norm? Well, most Steam sales are like that, but winter has a few bonuses to go along with it. For example, the Steam Awards.

Nothing I voted for in the Steam Awards won. I have no investment in most of the categories, so those are mostly just a guess as to which title I think will win… but I am usually able to guess correctly on something. Not this year. Here are the winners.

The 2025 Steam Awards Winners

Game of the Year went to Hollow Knight: Silksong, which I guess shouldn’t have been a surprise.

The only category I had some mild investment in was the Labor of Love category, where I voted, once again, for No Man’s Sky. Hello Games has really kept things going for over nine years now. But, as happened last year, Baldur’s Gate III won. It shouldn’t even have qualified one year in, in my opinion at least, and two years since launch isn’t all that convincing.

It turns out this popularity contest is just a popularity contest or something! Imagine that.

And my pick for outstanding visual style, My Little Puppy, was also snubbed.

My Little Puppy

Being nominated was the real prize for this title I suppose… though I am just now noticing that the puppy appears to have a halo over its head. This may have been a darker pick than I realized.

Anyway, the link to all of that is at the end of the post.

Then there is the Best of Steam 2025. These show the top 100 titles over seven categories, including sections for VR and Steam Deck. But really only the top sellers and most played are interesting to me. They are broken out into Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze sections, with Platinum being the top 12, though they are not ordered within each category.

This year the Platinum tier top sellers were as follows:

Steam 2025 – Top Sellers

Certainly some of the usual suspects on there. How DOTA 2 and Counter Strike 2 continue on forever I do not know.

I suppose the surprise on there is Schedule I, an early access indie title, though the bigger surprise for me is that Civilization VII didn’t make the cut, landing down in the silver tier.

As for games I play, No Man’s Sky did sneak into the Bronze tier, which isn’t bad for a nine year old title that is buy to play with no DLC available.

On the most played side of things, the Platinum tier had the following:

Steam 2025 – Most Played

Again, some of the usual suspects in there, including the aforementioned DOTA 2 and Counter Strike 2., along with GTA V and Stardew Valley. Also, the surprise again was Civilization VII being down in the silver bracket. When has a new Civ title been that low in either, especially with almost a full year since launch? It did make it to Platinum for new releases, but not in the larger groups.

Then, down in Bronze were No Man’s Sky and Valheim. People keep on playing.

No Man’s Sky did make it to Platinum in the VR category… something added after launch… so it has that going for it.

Then there was the Steam Hardware Survey, again linked at the end of the post.

Steam Hardware Survey – December 2025

I am always most interested in the primary display resolution, where 1920×1080 has remained dominate by a huge margin for years. But that dominance is shrinking. It was 53.68% at the end of 2025, but 55.98% in 2024, 60% in 2023, and 65% back in 2022.

That still isn’t enough movement to get some companies to acknowledge that larger resolutions exist, but smart ones, like ArenaNet, have acted. Guild Wars now looks great on my my 3440×1440 screen (which represents just 3.65% in the Steam survey) unlike some Middle-earth titles I could mention. Maybe they’ll get with the program in 2026, though I’ll have to see it to believe it.

Finally, the big question: Did I buy anything during the sale?

I did!

I purchased Icarus, Blue Prince, and RuneScape: Dragonwilds.

Potshot had mentioned Icarus as a possible next title, and it was $3.50, so why not?

Blue Prince has been getting a lot of talk, so I grabbed that on sale.

And RuneScape: Dragonwilds is another survival co-op title that has been getting some traction… and it was on sale, so it is there in my backlog waiting for me to find the time to try it out.

So that is it, the end of 2025 and the Steam Winter Sale. Now we’re on to 2026.

The annual holiday tradition of video game discounts has arrived once more at Steam as they unleash the 2025 version of their Winter Sale. which runs from today through until 10:00 Pacific time on January 5, 2026… that grim first Monday of the year.

Steam Winter Sale 2025

For me and my fellow pedants it is technically not yet winter yet, as the solstice doesn’t arrive until Sunday. But I always feel like all of December is winter. It is one of those situations where I don’t need to be technically correct, even if I felt I had to point it out. Something is wrong with me I am sure.

Along with that rider about the start of winter I also have a habit of pointing out how the sale aspect of the event isn’t as special as it once was. Now it almost feels like remembering how special Christmas was as a child. But there are sales year round and I am an adult and can buy stuff whenever I darn well please, right?

Still, as with memories of childhood, there is still a little ache in my heart remembering how exciting Steam having its big winter sale once was.

Which is not to say there are not some good deals. The Deep Discounts page has a few items worth note such as the LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga for just five bucks.

Meanwhile, Icarus, which is on my wishlist as Potshot was looking at it as a possible next destination for the group… well, that is just tree fiddy now!

Icarus available for 90% off

So I will shop, even if the sale thing is a bit jaded in many of us.

But wait, there is more!

It is also time to vote in the annual Steam Awards.

This will at least pass a bit of time. I do like that they point out if any of the titles you nominated made the final cut for the awards vote. And look who I nominated for Game of the Year.

Game of the Year Award Choices

That’s right, I went with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a game I know nothing about, BEFORE it won all the awards at The Game Awards this year.

That said, I voted for Dispatch this round, if only because I tend to vote against any title that is too popular, and hasn’t Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won enough freaking awards this year?

The other nomination of mine that made it to the finals was for No Man’s Sky under the Labor of Love category.

The Labor of Love Award choices

Last year NMS got robbed by Baldur’s Gate 3, which was barely old enough to have had any post-launch labors at that point. It is like these popularity contests are just popularity contests or something. Anyway, we’ll see if Larian using AI for… whatever they are claiming now… changes the equation.

The rest of the categories involve games with which I have had zero contact, so I am just trying to counter-program with my votes.

Outstanding Visual Style Award Choices

That’s right, I am going with My Little Puppy for visual style! Fight me!

Anyway, you can cast your vote until Jan 3, 10:00 AM Pacific Time, after which I assume the winners will be announced.

And then there is your annual Steam Replay for 2025. As I have done in the past, I will go into mine in its own post. But you can see what Steam thinks of what you play style it.

I think I have advertised for Steam enough here. They aren’t the only one having a sale, but I might get to a bit of that later.