Eight developers. A $19.99 price tag. A pitch that sounds like a fever dream — robot cowboy bounty hunters slinging fireballs at skeleton hordes in a supernatural Wild West. And as of today, it’s the number one game on Steam, full stop.

Far Far West, the Early Access co-op shooter from French indie studio Evil Raptor, has claimed the top spot on Steam’s Top Sellers chart. It’s sitting on a 99% positive rating from 220 reviews, peaked at 10,131 concurrent players on launch day, and earned Steam’s Featured Win badge — the platform’s equivalent of a standing ovation.

The launch discount brings it to $17.99. That number matters. In a market saturated with $70 titles shipping battle passes and half-finished campaigns, Far Far West is selling a complete, distinctive experience at a price that doesn’t require budget committee approval.

What Actually Is This Game

Far Far West is a 1-4 player co-op FPS built around mission-based contracts. You drop into a stage as a robot cowboy, complete objectives — some straightforward, some surprisingly clever, involving puzzles and even math — fight through waves of undead enemies, then face a boss. Standard enough so far.

But the extraction mechanic is where it sharpens its teeth. After downing the boss, you don’t get a victory screen. You get a desperate sprint across the map to a train station while infinite enemies pour in behind you. Ring the bell, hold the line, and pray the train arrives before you’re overrun. It’s the kind of design choice that turns a competent shooter into a memorable one — the exact moment players clip and share with friends.

Between missions, there’s a hub town with vendors, upgrades, and a multiplayer darts game. You unlock new weapons, abilities, and cosmetics as you progress. Side-arms offer utility over raw damage — the starting side-arm poisons enemies, draining health over time. The spell system layers combos on top of the gunplay, giving each run the potential for spectacular chain kills.

The Studio Behind the Surge

Evil Raptor is an eight-person team based in France, founded formally in 2020 after the surprise success of Pumpkin Jack — a 3D platformer that punched well above its weight. Their follow-up, Akimbot, proved the studio could handle action at scale. Far Far West is their most ambitious project yet, and the trajectory from cult platformer to Steam’s top seller is the kind of progression that makes other indie studios take notes.

Publisher Fireshine Games — the London-based outfit behind Core Keeper and the physical release of Balatro — clearly knew what they had on their hands. The game racked up more than 700,000 wishlists prior to launch, according to the official press release. During February’s Steam Next Fest, it landed at number five among the most-played demos out of over 3,500 titles. The audience was already there. The question was whether Evil Raptor could deliver on the promise.

Not Perfect, But Pitch-Perfect Positioning

Hey Poor Player’s early review notes that the game “still has work to do” — the hub town feels sparse, the content pool could be deeper, and the experience is clearly built around co-op play rather than solo runs. These are real concerns for a $19.99 Early Access title.

But here’s the thing: the players showing up for Far Far West aren’t expecting a finished product. They’re showing up because the core loop — shoot, loot, extract, upgrade — is tight enough to justify the price of admission right now. The top Steam review, from a playtester with 104.7 hours logged, reads: “A game from my childhood dreams where I play as Robot Cowboys casting and combo’n spells against the undead. Score 10/10.”

That’s not a review. That’s a recruitment poster.

The Bigger Picture

Far Far West isn’t just a surprise hit. It’s a case study in how the Steam market actually works in 2026. You build hype through Next Fest demos. You price aggressively. You launch with a discount that puts you in impulse-buy territory. You deliver a core loop that clips well and plays even better with friends. And you let a 99% rating do the marketing for you.

Evil Raptor has committed to building on the game’s foundation throughout Early Access, with new content shaped by community feedback. If today’s numbers are any indication, that community is going to be very, very vocal.

The top seller chart doesn’t lie. Right now, eight people in France own it.

Sources