Valve says Marathon's Server Slam is the biggest Steam Next Fest demo, but I'm not sure that should count

We have nearly sandblasted through February's Steam Next Fest blowout before it ends on March 2, so Valve is commemorating the event's halfway mark with official details on what made up its 10 most-played titles. I just… I think there's something a little wrong with the publisher's parameters. According to Valve, Bungie's Server Slam for Marathon counts as a demo.

The Marathon release date is set for March 5, but the Destiny developer is testing its new extraction FPS' strength with the Marathon server slam beta period that began February 26. The idea was to run "a technical stress test," as Bungie writes in a blog post about the event, which offers a sample platter of the game – like a few zones in the Tau Ceti IV colony, access to five factions, and even upgrade trees. I don't think it's comparable to the many brief demos all kinds of developers, including those with far fewer resources than Bungie, have put out.

The Server Slam reached 143,000 concurrent Steam players on just its first day, while other Steam Next Fest participants might not even dare to dream of those kinds of numbers. In any case, according to its parameters, Valve lists Marathon at the top of its top 10 most-played demos. Burglin' Gnomes was robbed!

You can see Valve's full list below:

• Marathon
• Burglin' Gnomes
• Windrose
• Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors
• Far Far West
• Outbound
• John Carpenter's Toxic Commando
• Wanderburg
• Fate Trigger
• Everything is Crab: The Animal Evolution Roguelite

But what makes your Steam Next Fest top 10?

As Steam Next Fest gets bigger and more crowded with free demos, these developers are still finding wins: "It's kind of early access for Early Access."