Views: filter by the highest (max) field value of all items In this case, ‘Volume’ is a text field of type integer. Using the Views module, I want to display only those articles which have the highest value in the volume field. 

I am able to do it using contextual filter but I have to provide a default value like 6. Please see the attached screenshot. 

Is there any way in views, to detect the highest value of the field and use that as a filter?
I fear you will need a subquery for that. You can do that in a custom module.

/**
 * Implements hook_views_query_alter().
 */
function MODULE_NAME_views_query_alter(&amp;$view, &amp;$query) {
  $max = db_query('select max(YOUR_TABLE_COLUMN) from YOUR_TABLE')-&gt;fetchField();
  $query-&gt;add_where(0, db_and()-&gt;condition('TABLE.YOUR_FIELD_NAME', $max));
}


The tricky part here is to create your select query and find the correct field name/alias. Have a look at the query output of your view to find the correct parts.

Original answer (before clarification)

Instead of a contextual filter you can use a sort on the 'Volume' field. Sort descending. That way the articles with the highest 'volume' are at the top.

If you want to show only articles with a number higher than X you could add a regular filter for that.