You know that little blue button on Steam? The one that says "Add to your wishlist"? Most of us click it and forget it. We treat it like a digital "maybe later" pile. But for developers, that button is basically a lifeline. Right now, in early 2026, the steam most wishlisted games list isn't just a popularity contest. It’s a glimpse into the future of the industry.
And honestly? The data is a bit chaotic.
For years, we’ve seen the same heavy hitters camping out at the top of the charts. You’ve got the games that feel like urban legends at this point, and then you have the sudden, massive surges from titles nobody saw coming six months ago. If you think the list is just a bunch of AAA sequels, you’re missing the weirdest parts of the story.
The King that Refuses to Crown Itself
Let’s talk about the bug in the room. Hollow Knight: Silksong.
As of January 2026, Silksong isn't just "highly anticipated." It has officially broken records. We are looking at a game that has surpassed 5.2 million wishlists on Steam. To put that in perspective, that’s more people than the entire population of Ireland waiting for a 2D metroidvania about a bug princess.
Team Cherry has reached a sort of mythical status. They don't talk. They don't tweet. They just occasionally pop up in a Nintendo Direct or an Xbox showcase, send the internet into a collective meltdown, and then vanish back into the Australian bush. The "Silksanity" is real. In fact, it’s gotten so intense that several indie studios—real ones like the devs behind Aeterna Lucis—have openly admitted to shifting their release dates just to avoid being crushed by the Silksong shadow.
Is it healthy? Probably not. But it shows the power of a "pure" sequel. People aren't wishlisting Silksong because of a massive marketing budget. They’re doing it because the first game was a masterpiece that cost fifteen bucks.
The New Guard: Subnautica 2 and Deadlock
Right behind the bug, the rankings get a bit more corporate but no less interesting. Subnautica 2 has been hovering near the number two spot for a while now. Despite some "rough development waters" (as some internal leaks suggested late last year), the hype for a co-op driven deep-sea survival game is massive.
Then there’s Deadlock. Valve’s "secret" project that everyone knows about.
It's funny. Valve doesn't even have to try. Deadlock is currently sitting in the top five of the steam most wishlisted games despite Valve being... well, Valve. It’s a hero shooter? A MOBA? A weird third-person hybrid? Nobody is 100% sure of the final loop, but because it has the Valve logo on it, it has millions of eyes on it. It’s a stark reminder that in 2026, brand loyalty still carries more weight than a thousand cinematic trailers.
The Resident Evil Factor
Capcom is on a heater. Resident Evil Requiem—the rumored title for the next mainline entry—has surged into the top ten this month.
People are obsessed with survival horror again. We saw it with the Silent Hill 2 remake's longevity and the RE4 remake's sales. But Requiem represents something else: the move to the next generation of the RE Engine. The wishlist numbers for this one are particularly high in Japan and the US, proving that while indie games own the "soul" of the wishlist, AAA horror owns the "wallet."
Why Wishlists Actually Matter (The Secret Strategy)
A lot of gamers think wishlisting is just for sales notifications. It’s not.
Take GTA 6. Rockstar finally opened up the Steam page and allowed wishlisting recently. Why? They don't need the money. They don't need the "visibility."
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They need the data.
Wishlists allow platforms like Steam to "warm up" their servers. When a game has 3 million wishlists, Valve knows exactly how much bandwidth to allocate for launch day. For smaller devs, it’s even more critical. If a game hits 100,000 wishlists, the Steam algorithm starts showing it to people who have never even heard of it. It’s the difference between a "hidden gem" and a "viral hit."
Current Standings: The Top 5 (January 2026)
- Hollow Knight: Silksong (The undisputed heavyweight champion)
- Subnautica 2 (The co-op survival darling)
- Deadlock (The Valve enigma)
- Light No Fire (Hello Games' massive open-world follow-up)
- Resident Evil Requiem (The horror titan)
The "Light No Fire" Gamble
Speaking of Hello Games, Light No Fire is a fascinating case study. After the redemption arc of No Man's Sky, Sean Murray could probably sell us a literal bag of sand and we’d buy it.
The game is currently sitting at #4 on the wishlist charts. What's wild is that we’ve seen so little of it compared to the others. It’s a "fantasy earth" game. No procedural planets, just one massive, planet-sized map. The wishlist count here is driven purely by the "I trust these guys now" sentiment. It’s a rare commodity in 2026.
The Extraction Shooter Fatigue?
You might notice something missing from the top of the steam most wishlisted games list: the generic extraction shooter.
A year ago, titles like ARC Raiders and Arena Breakout: Infinite were dominating the conversation. While they still have respectable numbers—ARC Raiders has around 2.5 million follows—the "gold rush" for the next Tarkov-killer seems to be cooling off. Players are gravitating back towards solid single-player experiences or unique co-op titles.
There’s a limit to how many times you can lose your gear to a bush-camper before you just want to go build a base in Subnautica or fight a boss in Silksong.
How to Use This Information
If you’re looking at these rankings and wondering what to play next, don't just look at the top five. The "Top 20" is where the real weirdness happens.
Watch games like Kingmakers (the one where you bring a machine gun to a medieval sword fight) or Blight: Survival. These are the games that represent the "middle class" of Steam—titles with high wishlist counts but lower marketing budgets. They are often the most innovative.
Practical Steps for the Smart Gamer:
- Clean your list: If a game has been on your wishlist for three years and hasn't updated its "News" section, it’s likely vaporware. Delete it.
- Follow, don't just wishlist: If you want to see the "behind the scenes" dev logs, the "Follow" button is actually more useful for your activity feed.
- Check the "Discovery Queue": Steam’s algorithm is smarter in 2026 than it used to be. It actually looks at the tags of your most wishlisted games to suggest demos during Steam Next Fest.
The steam most wishlisted games list is a living breathing thing. It tells us that we’re hungry for sequels, yes, but also that we’re willing to wait years for quality. Whether Silksong actually launches this year or we’re still talking about its wishlist record in 2027, one thing is certain: the "wishlist" is the most powerful tool a PC gamer has to signal what they actually want the industry to become.
Keep an eye on the "Top Sellers" versus "Most Wishlisted" overlap. When a game sits on both, like Monster Hunter Wilds did during its peak, that's a signal of a generational hit. For now, we wait for the bugs, the deep seas, and whatever mystery Valve is cooking in the basement.
To stay ahead of the curve, monitor the "Popular Upcoming" tab on Steam every Tuesday. This is when the rankings usually shift based on weekend trailer drops or social media virality. Pay close attention to the "Follower to Wishlist" ratio; a game with a high follower count relative to its wishlist rank often indicates a more hardcore, dedicated community that is more likely to support the game long-term through Early Access. Article complete.