These 10 games were huge hits at Steam Next Fest

Steam Next Fest ends today and ends another week full of demos. While hundreds of games battled for a spot on the homepage and some received a lot of backlash due to obvious AI, a few stood out from the rest, attracting thousands of players and tons of positive reviews.

The best part? Many of these games are coming out sooner than you might think. Here are the biggest hits from this week's event, along with their release dates.

Over The Hill

TBA 2026

Over The Hill is a beautiful game with a simple concept: you, a 1960s all-terrain vehicle, and big open vistas to explore. The demo is a zen experience. I found myself entering a meditative state. I imagine there are aspects of the game that become more challenging as you progress, such as more environmental threats and more complex terrain to navigate, but for the most part this game is just about taking it in.

Developer Funselektor has taken its pedigree of minimalist driving games like Art Of Rally and built it into a more complete experience. I can't wait for the full version of this.

Impulse

June 24, 2026

Empulse really caught my attention because its movement mechanics remind me a lot of Titanfall 2, but it kept me captivated for several hours of play due to the overall polish and shooting. You can wall run, jump, use a grappling hook, and otherwise dash around the map.

However, Impulse is not really that fast. It actually feels like a slightly slower multiplayer mode of Titanfall 2. That being said, I can see there being quite a gap between new and experienced players – which can always be difficult for shooters to manage, especially if they err on the smaller side of development.

Mound: Omen of Cthulhu

July 15, 2026

The Mound: Omen Of Cthulhu is a fascinating game: it's a co-op FPS extraction survival game that feels a bit like Sea of ​​Thieves filled with Lovecraftian horror, but it's only about the parts where you explore islands and look for treasure. I also had to throw Hunt Showdown in there for comparison. You head to tropical islands to collect loot, avoid horrible creatures, and finally mine your goods.

It's so dark and gritty and bloody scary, especially when I was playing alone. I'm hoping that the solo experience will expand a bit more than it currently is, as it seems like it's largely designed for co-op play. In general, I think the game needs a bit more polish (I got a really annoying bug where all the audio kept cutting out), but there's still a month or so left before the early access release, so we'll see!

Victims: unknown

TBA 2026

Victims: Unknown strikes me as a bizarre indie mix of Project Zomboid, Terraria, Spelunky and Barotrauma. It seems to draw from all of these games in different ways and ends up creating a completely unique deck. You are a special creature that is sent to the depths of the planet to retrieve the last cargo. You are expendable. Utterly, utterly expendable.

I died several times during the demo and spent just as much time slowly bandaging my broken bones only to die moments later from a severe infection I couldn't treat. I actually died and much in number of victims: unknown. The simulated broken bones made me cringe every time my weird little boy fell off a cliff. Of course, removing shards of glass from your feet is horrible. Everything about this game is bleak and morbid and, wow, I think it's a really great time.

No such place

TBA 2026

No Such Place is a top-down extraction shooter that reminds me a lot of a game called Zero Sievert, if you've ever heard of it. I also just finished reading The Strugack Brothers' Roadside Picnic, the book that inspired the Stalker series and obviously influenced the design of No Such Place. As a result, I went into the ChillyRoom demo for an extraction shooter with some contextual expectations.

No Such Place is a tense and often complicated experience, but I think overall it does a good job of capturing the hostile atmosphere of a place you really shouldn't be, no matter how much valuable loot is scattered about. I'm not sure I liked how the game fills your screen with visual clutter – both environment and UI/UX – but once I started getting into the rhythm of the game, I appreciated the flexibility of the playstyles. You don't have to shoot. Go steady. Take your time.

Void Diver

TBA 2026

There seems to be a bit of a theme emerging from this Next Fest. Void Diver is another extraction RPG where you manage an antiques store and send your “divers” to collect loot from an anomalous zone. I'm not sure why we're seeing such a renaissance in this particular, somewhat niche genre, but the event was full of demos that cover exactly this type of game and environment.

It's an isometric looter shooter that reminds me of Escape From Duckov, if the duck was an anime girl and the monsters weren't thugs, but absolute monsters like Stalker. Void Diver is a bit clunky in places, but it's definitely one to watch for the future.

Echoes Of Aincrad

July 9, 2026

Echoes of Aincrad is a sprawling game, even in its demo version. Fans are clearly excited about the new project in the Sword Art Online universe, and the demo player numbers clearly show that, with the demo regularly holding over 10,000 players.

I'm not very well-versed in SAO, but I know that the response in the community has been extremely mixed: some praise the scale and scope of the demo, while others worry that it's pretty undercooked. As someone who just went to experience the much talked about game, I had a decent amount of time exploring, leveling up my characters, and getting to grips with the combat. It's obviously not doing anything groundbreaking, but maybe with a little more time after launch, it could be the game that the SAO fandom wants.

Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator

TBA August 2026

Iron Nest is one of the top-rated demos from Steam Next Fest, and for good reason: it's a passion project built by a small team that hones in on one unique concept and executes it exceptionally well. In Iron Nest, you control a huge heavy tower.

You have to solve the puzzle-like coordinate game elements to hit your target and then play with the various buttons and handles to make the shot land in the right place. I like the audio design, the tactility of the controls and the attention to detail.

Mistfall Hunter

July 30, 2026

Mistall Hunter is the demo I played the most during the week long playtest that just ended. I think this game – which is basically a PvPvE game with a Dark and Darker fantasy extraction with a Nordic aesthetic – will do great things if the team at Bellring Games can listen to some important feedback from the test.

This includes duo queue (I have no idea why more games don't include duo queue by default, it always seems to be a community favorite) as well as balance changes for Rogue (obviously) and a final pass through optimization that definitely suffered in playtesting. Even on my high end gear I was getting all sorts of stutters and lags. These must be completely removed for the Mistfall Hunter to have any chance of success.

Bombana!

TBA August 2026

Well, like many others, I didn't discover Bombanan until just before the end of Steam Next Fest, and I have to say that this game is great if you have two other teammates. You are three monkeys. One of you is blind, one of you is deaf, and one of you is mute. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. You have one task: to defuse the bomb. This requires a level of interaction that causes some hilarious and frenzied squealing/head-shaking/explaining.

This is just some good old friendlop, another indie game that takes a fairly familiar concept (it went viral with Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes) and adds a unique element for a refreshing twist. I can see it being popular when it launches.