The February 2026 version of the Steam Next Fest has come and gone. The week was full of new and returning demos for upcoming games, and Valve has shared a look at what the most played demos were.
Specifically, Valve has shared a list of the top 50 most played demos for the event. Maybe the list includes some demos you personally tried. Maybe the list includes some games you may have missed that you might be interested in.
The list is in order "by number of unique players during the week-long event." It shows Marathon taking the top spot, which I suppose that could be counted as a demo. It was technically a "server slam" event that was advertised. It did have a bunch of content omitted that will be in the final game, so I guess it was a demo?
There are some other titles on there in the top spots such as the Vampire Survivors sequel, Vampire Crawlers. There was also Burglin' Gnomes, which is a co-op game about breaking stuff in some guy's house as a group of gnomes. Sledding Game, a "game about sledding and hanging out with friends," also had a new demo. Sledding Game is one of the few demos I tried and it was definitely a cozy and fun title. Then there was Windrose, which is a PvE survival game set in the Age of Piracy where you fight on land and sea.
Most of the games featured on this top 50 list still have demos readily available for you to download and try.
