Subscriptions are the loudest number in the Steam Workshop — they tell you how many players installed a mod. But there is a quieter, arguably sharper signal hiding in the same dataset: favorites. A favorite is a bookmark. It is a player saying "I want to find this again." It measures return intent, not just a one-time install.
Pulling from ModSignal's live dataset of 4.4 million active mods across 80 tracked games, the active mods in our dataset have accumulated 424 million favorites against 8.06 billion subscriptions. That ratio — roughly one favorite for every 19 subscriptions — is the Workshop's hidden engagement layer.
The most-favorited Steam Workshop mods of all time
These are the single most-bookmarked items in the entire Workshop, ranked by current favorites:
| Mod | Game | Favorites | Subscriptions |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOTA AUTO CHESS | Dota 2 | 1,933,553 | 10,189,529 |
| VCT NA - yay | Aimlabs | 812,497 | 2,449,687 |
| Gridshot 3x3 | Aimlabs | 777,260 | 1,757,857 |
| Overthrow | Dota 2 | 770,647 | 10,148,170 |
| VCT LATAM - kiNgg | Aimlabs | 588,816 | 3,182,828 |
| crashz' Crosshair Generator v3 | Counter-Strike 2 | 480,389 | 39,765,729 |
| VCT NA - TenZ | Aimlabs | 417,172 | 2,906,613 |
| Demon1 | Aimlabs | 386,436 | 748,273 |
| Custom Hero Chaos | Dota 2 | 345,385 | 5,378,948 |
| Dota 10v10 | Dota 2 | 331,921 | 6,094,279 |
The list is dominated by two ecosystems: Dota 2 custom games and Aimlabs training routines. That is not a coincidence. Both are recurring-use mods — a custom game mode you return to nightly, or an aim routine you run before every ranked session. Players bookmark what they plan to use again.
The favorites-per-subscription ratio: which games inspire the most return intent
Raw favorites favor the biggest games. The more interesting number is favorites per subscription — how often a player who installs a mod also bookmarks it. That ratio isolates return intent from raw scale:
| Game | Favorites | Subscriptions | Favs per sub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Left 4 Dead 2 | 92.6M | 516.8M | 0.179 |
| Stellaris | 6.7M | 53.6M | 0.125 |
| Hearts of Iron IV | 7.7M | 69.9M | 0.110 |
| Total War: Warhammer III | 4.9M | 45.4M | 0.108 |
| Ravenfield | 7.0M | 70.8M | 0.099 |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 7.9M | 80.2M | 0.099 |
| Team Fortress 2 | 0.6M | 6.2M | 0.098 |
| The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth | 6.7M | 73.1M | 0.092 |
Left 4 Dead 2 leads the entire Workshop on favorites-per-subscription at 0.179 — nearly one bookmark for every five installs. That is the signature of a modding community built on replayable content: campaign overhauls, weapon packs, and animation mods that players cycle through and want to find again. Strategy games (Stellaris, Hearts of Iron IV, Total War) cluster high too — their mods are long-form, and players bookmark the ones they want to revisit across a 100-hour campaign.
What the bookmark signal means for creators
Favorites are a leading indicator that subscriptions miss. A mod with a high favorites-to-subscriptions ratio is one players intend to return to — the strongest signal of durable demand. For a creator, a high ratio on a new mod is worth more than a spike in raw installs, because it predicts retention.
The single highest favorites-per-subscription mod in the entire dataset is Micro Gridshot (Aimlabs) at 1.28 — more favorites than subscriptions, a mod players bookmark even before they install. That is the purest return-intent signal in the Workshop.
The takeaway
Subscriptions tell you a mod got installed. Favorites tell you it got remembered. For anyone tracking Steam Workshop demand — creators deciding what to build, or investors sizing a modding ecosystem — the favorites signal is the one that separates a one-time install from a mod players plan to come back to.
Data from ModSignal's live Steam Workshop dataset: 4.4 million active mods, 80 games, 8.06 billion subscriptions, 424 million favorites.