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 · Perspectives: Side view

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.

9 Years of Shadows is an Action, Adventure, Indie game released in 2023, priced at $7.99, with an estimated 100,000 .. 200,000 owners and a Mostly Positive review sentiment (77% of 3367 reviews).

9
playing now
77%
positive of 3.4k reviews
Mostly Positive
steam's rating (official)
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
62/100
IGDB user rating (17 ratings)
2
Nexus mods (48 downloads)
3.95★
PlayStation Store rating (189 ratings)
10h
to beat · rushed 7h · completionist 10h
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$7.99
steam price (US)

9 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 14:00 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.

Trailer

9 Years of Shadows trailer thumbnail

9 Years of Shadows - Official Story Trailer | gamescom 2022

≈1,000,000 YouTube results for this game's trailer search

Health check

Healthy
  • · 9 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 8% of 27,701 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-29

Estimated sales: 67k–152k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 3,367 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

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 166 of 217 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

1502026-09-15 00:00 — 15 players2026-09-16 08:00 — 5 players2026-09-17 15:00 — 8 players2026-09-18 23:00 — 9 players2026-09-20 06:00 — 9 players2026-09-21 14:00 — 3 players2026-09-22 22:00 — 9 players2026-09-24 05:00 — 4 players2026-09-25 13:00 — 7 players2026-09-26 20:00 — 10 players2026-09-28 04:00 — 4 players2026-09-29 11:00 — 2 players2026-09-30 19:00 — 7 players2026-10-02 02:00 — 3 players2026-10-03 10:00 — 6 players2026-10-04 18:00 — 11 players2026-10-06 01:00 — 9 players2026-10-07 09:00 — 5 players2026-10-08 16:00 — 9 players2026-10-10 00:00 — 15 players2026-10-11 07:00 — 10 players2026-10-12 15:00 — 12 players2026-10-13 23:00 — 11 players2026-10-14 14:00 — 9 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
578Apr 2023Aug 2026Apr 2023 — avg 57 · peak 271Jun 2023 — avg 8 · peak 23Aug 2023 — avg 19 · peak 57Oct 2023 — avg 15 · peak 47Dec 2023 — avg 15 · peak 37Feb 2024 — avg 11 · peak 35Apr 2024 — avg 11 · peak 35Jun 2024 — avg 23 · peak 85Aug 2024 — avg 15 · peak 39Oct 2024 — avg 10 · peak 29Dec 2024 — avg 14 · peak 43Feb 2025 — avg 14 · peak 39Apr 2025 — avg 15 · peak 42Jun 2025 — avg 10 · peak 28Aug 2025 — avg 17 · peak 74Oct 2025 — avg 11 · peak 35Dec 2025 — avg 14 · peak 38Feb 2026 — avg 11 · peak 29Apr 2026 — avg 13 · peak 33Jun 2026 — avg 9 · peak 27Aug 2026 — avg 9 · peak 23
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$99.99$5.402022-08-232026-10-142022-08-23 — best price $99.992023-05-25 — best price $13.992023-07-25 — best price $17.772023-09-21 — best price $12.882023-11-02 — best price $19.992023-12-06 — best price $15.892024-01-30 — best price $14.692024-03-07 — best price $13.992024-04-09 — best price $10.592024-05-17 — best price $19.992024-06-26 — best price $15.082024-08-14 — best price $17.402024-09-30 — best price $15.082024-11-27 — best price $9.992024-12-25 — best price $10.002025-01-17 — best price $16.492025-02-28 — best price $19.992025-04-02 — best price $14.692025-05-24 — best price $19.992025-07-03 — best price $6.082025-08-21 — best price $6.692025-09-29 — best price $6.202025-11-08 — best price $19.992025-12-10 — best price $8.002026-01-30 — best price $19.992026-03-10 — best price $7.992026-04-17 — best price $17.492026-05-21 — best price $7.042026-06-20 — best price $19.792026-07-30 — best price $19.992026-08-31 — best price $7.992026-09-20 — best price $7.992026-10-10 — best price $19.992026-10-14 — best price $7.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

46152026-06-01 — 18 pageviews2026-06-05 — 28 pageviews2026-06-09 — 28 pageviews2026-06-13 — 26 pageviews2026-06-17 — 31 pageviews2026-06-21 — 31 pageviews2026-06-25 — 24 pageviews2026-06-29 — 31 pageviews2026-07-03 — 27 pageviews2026-07-07 — 21 pageviews2026-07-11 — 23 pageviews2026-07-15 — 23 pageviews2026-07-19 — 24 pageviews2026-07-23 — 29 pageviews2026-07-27 — 27 pageviews2026-07-31 — 20 pageviews2026-08-04 — 34 pageviews2026-08-08 — 34 pageviews2026-08-12 — 34 pageviews2026-08-16 — 20 pageviews2026-08-20 — 22 pageviews2026-08-24 — 25 pageviews2026-08-28 — 33 pageviews2026-09-01 — 29 pageviews2026-09-05 — 28 pageviews2026-09-09 — 15 pageviews2026-09-13 — 24 pageviews2026-09-17 — 16 pageviews2026-09-21 — 25 pageviews2026-09-25 — 35 pageviews2026-09-29 — 29 pageviews2026-10-03 — 32 pageviews2026-10-07 — 46 pageviews2026-10-11 — 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.

Where its players are

Share of Steam reviews by language (top languages measured) — a proxy for where the player base lives.

Player tags

2DAnimeActionFantasyAdventureAction RPGPlatformerAtmosphericExplorationMetroidvania

Census log

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

Recent updates

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

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