Two cooperative bundles are sitting in Steam’s top 10 bestsellers, and neither is a new release. The Subnautica Deep Ocean Bundle holds at #6. The Deep Rock Galactic x Rogue Core bundle sits at #8. Between them, they’re out-earning almost every fresh launch on the platform.

This is not how bundles usually perform. Repackaged catalog titles with discount stickers don’t muscle into revenue charts dominated by day-one blockbusters and free-to-play titans. But two of them just did.

The Bundle Play

The Subnautica Deep Ocean Bundle offers the complete underwater survival trilogy — the original Subnautica, its expansion Below Zero, and early-access phenom Subnautica 2 — at 50% off, dropping the total to €40.47 from €89.97. The timing lines up with Steam’s Ocean Fest, which has been discounting water-themed titles across the store.

Subnautica 2 doesn’t need the bundle’s help. According to Alinea Analytics, the early-access sequel sold 4.1 million copies in its first week, generating $100 million in revenue and claiming the title of fastest-selling Steam game of 2026. Over the same five-day window, it outsold Slay the Spire 2 by 1.4x and Resident Evil Requiem by nearly 2x. The game holds a 91% positive rating on Steam, with players calling out cooperative multiplayer — a first for the series, supporting up to four players — as a standout feature. Alinea’s data also shows 2.4 million players accessed the game through Xbox Game Pass, pushing total players past 6 million.

The bundle exists for the holdouts: players who see Subnautica 2 dominating their friends list but haven’t touched the original. The first game still offers a more complete experience, given that Subnautica 2 is early access — and htxt.africa notes the original Subnautica separately claimed the #7 revenue spot during the week of May 12–19, suggesting a wave of latecomers catching up.

Deep Rock Galactic x Rogue Core takes the opposite approach. At €53.98, it pairs the beloved co-op mining shooter with its roguelike FPS spinoff, which just entered early access. Where Subnautica bundles proven hits together at a deep discount, Ghost Ship Games is using DRG’s reputation to bootstrap a follow-up that’s still proving itself. Per Rock Paper Shotgun, Rogue Core has evolved well beyond “Deep Rock Galactic in a fake roguelike beard,” with faster and more aggressive enemies, a constantly rising threat meter, and upgrade mechanics that force genuine team coordination rather than casual cooperation.

DRG’s community built itself around a simple contract: the developers keep delivering free, substantial content updates, and players keep showing up. Ghost Ship spent years honoring that deal through seasonal battle passes with permanent unlocks and cosmetic systems that never chased microtransaction revenue. Rogue Core continues that approach — Rock Paper Shotgun notes that its pick-and-mix unlock system is permanent throughout early access, with no paid cosmetics. That consistency is part of why the bundle works. Players aren’t just buying a game. They’re betting the studio’s track record extends to the new one.

The Numbers Behind the Trend

Neither bundle charts this high without a structural tailwind. Cooperative PvE games punch wildly above their weight on Steam, and the data is unambiguous.

A Video Game Insights study reported by Game Developer found that co-op titles made up just 6% of Steam releases in 2023 but accounted for 36% of all units sold. The average co-op game moves roughly 40,000 copies — eight times the 5,000-copy average for solo titles. The top quartile clears 300,000 lifetime units.

The pandemic threw gasoline on this. Co-op games hit 43% of all Steam units sold in 2020. But the audience didn’t evaporate when lockdowns ended. Palworld moved 19.1 million copies in early 2024. Helldivers II added 11.4 million. According to VGI, the best co-op games don’t just need to be replayable — they need to be shareable, capable of going viral and pulling in new players through existing friend groups.

The Social Bundle

Both bundles exploit the same mechanic: cooperative games are social products, and social products need group adoption. A bundle that includes the predecessor, the expansion, and the sequel at half price isn’t a value play for one player. It’s a squad purchase — a way to get the whole group on board without anyone eating the full cost.

The strategies diverge past that shared logic. Subnautica trades per-unit revenue for sheer volume, betting that deep discounts drive mass adoption. Deep Rock Galactic trades on trust, pairing a proven commodity with an unproven one and counting on years of goodwill to close the sale.

Both are working. Both are sitting above most competitive multiplayer titles on the platform. And the signal is clear enough that the industry should stop calling this a trend. Cooperative PvE isn’t the alternative anymore. On Steam, at least, it’s the main event.

Sources