Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! We have nearly sandblasted through February's Steam Next Fest blowout before it ends on March 2, so Valve is commemorating the event's halfway mark with official details on what made up its 10 most-played titles. I just… I think there's something a little wrong with the publisher's parameters. According to Valve, Bungie's Server Slam for Marathon counts as a demo. The Marathon release date is set for March 5, but the Destiny developer is testing its new extraction FPS' strength with the Marathon server slam beta period that began February 26. The idea was to run "a technical stress test," as Bungie writes in a blog post about the event, which offers a sample platter of the game – like a few zones in the Tau Ceti IV colony, access to five factions, and even upgrade trees. I don't think it's comparable to the many brief demos all kinds of developers, including those with far fewer resources than Bungie, have put out. The Server Slam reached 143,000 concurrent Steam players on just its first day, while other Steam Next Fest participants might not even dare to dream of those kinds of numbers. In any case, according to its parameters, Valve lists Marathon at the top of its top 10 most-played demos. Burglin' Gnomes was robbed! Marathon's server slam sees 143,000 concurrent Steam players so far, which isn't far behind Arc Raiders' own server slam I've been writing about new indie games for years, and these are the 10 best Steam Next Fest demos to play this weekend How to download the Marathon server slam and when it ends You can see Valve's full list below: Marathon Burglin' Gnomes Windrose Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors Far Far West Outbound John Carpenter's Toxic Commando Wanderburg Fate Trigger Everything is Crab: The Animal Evolution Roguelite But what makes your Steam Next Fest top 10? As Steam Next Fest gets bigger and more crowded with free demos, these developers are still finding wins: "It's kind of early access for Early Access."