Steam has officially revealed the top-selling games released on the platform in the month of March. As ever on PC, the list is a range of diverse titles including JRPGs, idle games, first-person shooters, and more. One title on Steam's list that's both surprising and not is Half-Life: Alyx, Valve's VR sequel to the Half-Life franchise.
On one hand, Half-Life: Alyx being on the top-selling list for its launch month is no surprise whatsoever. It is developed by Valve, after all. That instantly makes it a highly-anticipated release, regardless of its name or gameplay. That it's also named Half-Life, one of the most well-regarded PC franchises ever, certainly helps too.
But Half-Life: Alyx also has a major negative factor holding it back, too, as Half-Life: Alyx is a virtual reality-only game. In order to play it, PC gamers need to own a virtual reality headset, and Steam data from April shows that just 1.29% of Steam users have such a VR headset, making Half-Life: Alyx an extremely niche release.
Half-Life: Alyx isn't just any VR game, though. Securing a broad swathe of just 1.29% of Steam users is still certain to be very successful. That's why Half-Life: Alyx is on Steam's list of top releases for March 20, with games like Doom Eternal and Borderlands 3, but also other niche titles like Trails of Cold Steel 3, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realm, and Panzercorps 2.
Half-Life: Alyx is available now on PC.