The Game Census
9 Years of Shadows cover art

9 Years of Shadows

Halberd Studios · indie.io · 2023-03-27

SteamGOGPlayStation StoreEpic Games Store

ActionAdventureIndie

Modes: Single player

Releases: Jul 31, 2025 (PlayStation 5), Jul 31, 2025 (PlayStation 4), Jul 31, 2025 (Xbox One), Jul 31, 2025 (Xbox Series X|S), Mar 27, 2023 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Nov 21, 2024 (Android)

Fight to bring beautiful colors back to a hand-crafted world of darkness and discover the story of Europa, a young warrior, and her ghostly childhood companion, Apino.

18
playing now
77%
positive of 3.3k reviews
Mostly Positive
steam rating
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
62/100
IGDB user rating (17 ratings)
10h
to beat · rushed 7h · completionist 10h
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$7.99
steam price (US)

18 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 05:00 UTC (census sample)

9 Years of Shadows is a 2023 video game developed by Halberd Studios and published by Freedom Games. The game is a metroidvania in which players explore the interior of Talos Castle, defeating enemies and bosses to collect new armor pieces and open up new areas. Upon release, the game received average reviews.

Health check

Healthy
  • · 18 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 266 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~33/week).
  • · Review velocity up 4% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 20% of 10,936 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-29

Estimated sales: 67k–150k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 3,334 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

lowest across shops (ITAD)$6.99-65%
GOG$7.99-60%

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $5.20 at Fortuna Digital (2026-05-22) · bundled 10×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $19.99 · on sale 143 of 192 observed days · $2.79 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
27527520232026Week of 2023-03-01: 269 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 45 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 275 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 71 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 85 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 42 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 74 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 53 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 37 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 20 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 91 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 48 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 9 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1822026-08-11 19:00 — 10 players2026-08-12 11:00 — 4 players2026-08-13 02:00 — 10 players2026-08-13 18:00 — 3 players2026-08-14 10:00 — 4 players2026-08-15 02:00 — 8 players2026-08-15 18:00 — 7 players2026-08-16 10:00 — 5 players2026-08-17 02:00 — 9 players2026-08-17 17:00 — 15 players2026-08-18 09:00 — 5 players2026-08-19 01:00 — 13 players2026-08-19 17:00 — 10 players2026-08-20 08:00 — 2 players2026-08-21 00:00 — 13 players2026-08-21 16:00 — 3 players2026-08-22 08:00 — 5 players2026-08-22 23:00 — 7 players2026-08-23 15:00 — 14 players2026-08-24 07:00 — 4 players2026-08-24 23:00 — 12 players2026-08-25 15:00 — 15 players2026-08-26 07:00 — 5 players2026-08-26 23:00 — 10 players2026-08-27 15:00 — 15 players2026-08-28 07:00 — 8 players2026-08-28 23:00 — 17 players2026-08-29 13:00 — 9 players2026-08-30 05:00 — 18 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$99.99$5.402022-08-232026-08-302022-08-23 — best price $99.992023-05-16 — best price $17.462023-07-17 — best price $12.992023-09-04 — best price $14.992023-10-21 — best price $13.992023-11-21 — best price $13.992023-12-22 — best price $13.992024-02-11 — best price $9.992024-03-14 — best price $13.992024-04-11 — best price $12.182024-05-17 — best price $19.992024-06-20 — best price $10.052024-08-02 — best price $8.892024-09-23 — best price $19.992024-11-04 — best price $9.992024-12-11 — best price $19.992025-01-02 — best price $15.082025-01-26 — best price $14.692025-03-04 — best price $8.892025-04-05 — best price $6.202025-05-24 — best price $19.992025-06-30 — best price $6.082025-08-08 — best price $6.792025-09-15 — best price $6.792025-10-22 — best price $7.902025-11-21 — best price $6.202026-01-06 — best price $6.392026-02-09 — best price $14.692026-03-17 — best price $8.002026-04-20 — best price $13.942026-05-21 — best price $7.042026-06-17 — best price $7.992026-07-21 — best price $7.992026-08-21 — best price $8.002026-08-30 — best price $7.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

56122026-06-01 — 18 pageviews2026-06-04 — 12 pageviews2026-06-07 — 21 pageviews2026-06-10 — 25 pageviews2026-06-13 — 26 pageviews2026-06-16 — 21 pageviews2026-06-19 — 27 pageviews2026-06-22 — 22 pageviews2026-06-25 — 24 pageviews2026-06-28 — 30 pageviews2026-07-01 — 18 pageviews2026-07-04 — 30 pageviews2026-07-07 — 21 pageviews2026-07-10 — 25 pageviews2026-07-13 — 21 pageviews2026-07-16 — 26 pageviews2026-07-19 — 24 pageviews2026-07-22 — 24 pageviews2026-07-25 — 24 pageviews2026-07-28 — 29 pageviews2026-07-31 — 20 pageviews2026-08-03 — 24 pageviews2026-08-06 — 25 pageviews2026-08-09 — 17 pageviews2026-08-12 — 34 pageviews2026-08-15 — 25 pageviews2026-08-18 — 28 pageviews2026-08-21 — 22 pageviews2026-08-24 — 25 pageviews2026-08-27 — 53 pageviews2026-08-29 — 35 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

34
achievements tracked
92.3%
earned "Bring it In"
31.8%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsFull controller supportSingle-playerFull controller supportFamily Sharing

7 supported languages: English, Spanish - Latin America, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)2,76420%34
PS5 (PlayStation)18443%35
PS5 (PlayStation)11843%35
Switch (Nintendo)990%0
Xbox Series, Xbox One (Xbox)8512%34
PS4 (PlayStation)3148%35
PS4 (PlayStation)1217%35

Players tracked by Exophase (achievement/trophy trackers) — a sample of the player base, not total sales.

Player tags

2DAnimeActionFantasyAdventureAction RPGPlatformerAtmosphericExplorationMetroidvania

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

VaganteOmensight: Definitive EditionPLANET ALPHACitadel: Forged with FireForgotton AnneEternity: The Last UnicornUnbound: Worlds ApartTorchlight III

Similarity via IGDB.

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