The Game Census
ANIMAL WELL cover art

ANIMAL WELL

Billy Basso · Bigmode · 2024-05-09

SteamPlayStation StoreMicrosoft Store

ActionAdventureIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Side view

Releases: May 09, 2024 (Nintendo Switch), May 09, 2024 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), May 09, 2024 (PlayStation 5), Oct 17, 2024 (Xbox Series X|S)

Explore a dense, interconnected labyrinth, and unravel its many secrets. Collect items to manipulate your environment in surprising and meaningful ways. Encounter beautiful and unsettling creatures, as you attempt to survive what lurks in the dark. There is more than what you see.

ANIMAL WELL is an Action, Adventure, and Indie game released in 2024, priced at $24.99, with an estimated 200,000 .. 500,000 owners and Overwhelmingly Positive (96% of 24601 reviews).

79
playing now
96%
positive of 25k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
steam's rating (official)
200,000–500,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
89/100
critic score (4 outlets, IGDB)
82/100
IGDB user rating (119 ratings)
4.52★
PlayStation Store rating (7,725 ratings)
89/100
opencritic · mighty · 98% recommend · from 57 critics
9.7h
to beat · rushed 6h · completionist 20h
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Verified
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$24.99
steam price (US)

79 players in-game as of 2026-10-15 19:00 UTC (census sample)

Animal Well is a 2024 Metroidvania puzzle-platformer video game developed by Billy Basso as Shared Memory and published by Bigmode. The player controls an unnamed blob creature and explores an underground animal-filled labyrinth which incorporates nonlinear platforming and puzzle solving. The game is presented as an interconnected set of rooms, or flip-screens, with 2D pixel art. No plot or backstory is given, and the game world is filled with puzzles and secrets, including some puzzles that require groups of players working in collaboration or several playthroughs to solve.

Trailer

ANIMAL WELL trailer thumbnail

ANIMAL WELL – Release Date Trailer – Nintendo Switch

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

Health check

Healthy
  • · 79 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 1,760 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~220/week).
  • · Review velocity down 29% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Current weekly pace is under 5% of the all-time peak week (8,954 reviews).
  • · Top 3% of 28,202 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-28

Estimated sales: 492k–1.1M copies

Review-multiple estimate from 24,601 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

Microsoft Store$17.49-30%

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $16.74 at Steam (2026-05-07)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $24.99 · on sale 10 of 25 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
8.6k8.6k20242026Week of 2024-05-01: 8,609 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 345 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 1,630 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 89 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 1,014 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 65 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 591 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 40 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 501 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 557 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 40 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 1,706 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 30 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 1,716 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 75 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 709 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 46 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 551 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 33 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 470 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 25 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 292 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 407 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 34 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 281 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 26 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 377 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 31 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 303 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 287 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 197 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 161 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 244 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 256 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 176 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 213 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 160 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 237 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 31 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 148 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 214 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 182 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 15 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

184422026-09-16 05:00 — 42 players2026-09-17 13:00 — 56 players2026-09-18 20:00 — 62 players2026-09-20 04:00 — 64 players2026-09-21 12:00 — 56 players2026-09-22 19:00 — 76 players2026-09-24 03:00 — 81 players2026-09-25 10:00 — 96 players2026-09-26 18:00 — 153 players2026-09-28 01:00 — 106 players2026-09-29 09:00 — 80 players2026-09-30 16:00 — 136 players2026-10-02 00:00 — 88 players2026-10-03 07:00 — 121 players2026-10-04 15:00 — 184 players2026-10-05 23:00 — 102 players2026-10-07 06:00 — 98 players2026-10-08 14:00 — 158 players2026-10-09 21:00 — 101 players2026-10-11 05:00 — 114 players2026-10-12 13:00 — 96 players2026-10-13 20:00 — 101 players2026-10-15 04:00 — 73 players2026-10-15 19:00 — 79 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
3.0k71May 2024Aug 2026May 2024 — avg 3,007 · peak 8,107Jun 2024 — avg 675 · peak 1,780Jul 2024 — avg 398 · peak 800Aug 2024 — avg 233 · peak 451Sep 2024 — avg 211 · peak 934Oct 2024 — avg 239 · peak 672Nov 2024 — avg 179 · peak 880Dec 2024 — avg 442 · peak 873Jan 2025 — avg 322 · peak 783Feb 2025 — avg 300 · peak 619Mar 2025 — avg 218 · peak 503Apr 2025 — avg 130 · peak 252May 2025 — avg 217 · peak 685Jun 2025 — avg 176 · peak 400Jul 2025 — avg 187 · peak 351Aug 2025 — avg 152 · peak 325Sep 2025 — avg 115 · peak 276Oct 2025 — avg 99 · peak 231Nov 2025 — avg 88 · peak 191Dec 2025 — avg 145 · peak 299Jan 2026 — avg 148 · peak 268Feb 2026 — avg 88 · peak 242Mar 2026 — avg 109 · peak 240Apr 2026 — avg 71 · peak 145May 2026 — avg 147 · peak 431Jun 2026 — avg 87 · peak 227Jul 2026 — avg 110 · peak 226Aug 2026 — avg 107 · peak 218
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$24.99$16.742024-05-092026-10-092024-05-09 — best price $22.492024-06-27 — best price $22.492024-08-08 — best price $22.492024-09-26 — best price $19.992024-11-27 — best price $19.992024-12-12 — best price $19.992024-12-19 — best price $19.992025-02-02 — best price $19.992025-03-13 — best price $19.992025-05-08 — best price $18.742025-06-15 — best price $18.742025-07-26 — best price $18.742025-09-08 — best price $18.742025-09-29 — best price $18.742025-10-27 — best price $18.742025-12-03 — best price $17.492025-12-18 — best price $17.492026-01-09 — best price $17.492026-02-24 — best price $17.492026-03-19 — best price $17.492026-05-07 — best price $16.742026-06-25 — best price $17.492026-08-09 — best price $17.492026-08-28 — best price $24.992026-09-11 — best price $24.992026-09-25 — best price $24.992026-10-09 — best price $17.49
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

3241302026-05-30 — 173 pageviews2026-06-03 — 152 pageviews2026-06-07 — 165 pageviews2026-06-11 — 145 pageviews2026-06-15 — 213 pageviews2026-06-19 — 137 pageviews2026-06-23 — 142 pageviews2026-06-27 — 193 pageviews2026-07-01 — 197 pageviews2026-07-05 — 199 pageviews2026-07-09 — 199 pageviews2026-07-13 — 161 pageviews2026-07-17 — 196 pageviews2026-07-21 — 192 pageviews2026-07-25 — 154 pageviews2026-07-29 — 173 pageviews2026-08-02 — 165 pageviews2026-08-06 — 130 pageviews2026-08-10 — 192 pageviews2026-08-14 — 163 pageviews2026-08-18 — 147 pageviews2026-08-22 — 147 pageviews2026-08-26 — 183 pageviews2026-08-30 — 224 pageviews2026-09-03 — 141 pageviews2026-09-07 — 173 pageviews2026-09-11 — 147 pageviews2026-09-15 — 162 pageviews2026-09-19 — 151 pageviews2026-09-23 — 212 pageviews2026-09-27 — 198 pageviews2026-10-01 — 169 pageviews2026-10-05 — 168 pageviews2026-10-08 — 149 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

20
achievements tracked
93.3%
earned "SECRET EGG"
39.1%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsFull controller supportSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFull controller supportGamepad RecommendedDualShock Controller SupportDualShock Controller SupportDualSense Controller SupportDualSense Controller SupportSteam CloudFamily Sharing

11 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Ukrainian, Korean

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
PS5 (PlayStation)16,83825%21
Steam (Steam)12,57016%20
Switch (Nintendo)9680%0
Xbox Series (Xbox)46318%20

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

2DIndieActionHorrorPuzzleMysterySurrealAdventureNonlinearPlatformer

Census log

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

Players also track

Don't Knock TwiceToby: The Secret MineMomodora: Reverie Under The MoonlightRusty Lake HotelPLANET ALPHACelesteForgotton AnnePikuniku

Similarity via IGDB.

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