The Game Census
Bacteria cover art

Bacteria

Sometimes You · 2016-03-23

Steam

CasualIndie

Modes: Single player

Releases: Mar 23, 2016 (Linux), Mar 23, 2016 (Mac), Mar 23, 2016 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

'Bacteria' - A relaxing puzzle game based on the rules of the cellular automaton ‘Life’ devised by John Horton Conway in 1970.

Bacteria is a 2016 Casual, Indie game priced at $0.49, with an estimated 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 owners and a Mixed review sentiment (58% of 419 reviews).

3
playing now
58%
positive of 419 reviews
Mixed
steam's rating (official)
1,000,000–2,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
50/100
IGDB user rating (1 ratings)
pending
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$0.49
steam price (US)

3 players in-game as of 2026-10-15 03:00 UTC (census sample)

Health check

Quiet
  • · 3 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 13 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~2/week).
  • · Review velocity up 44% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 14% of 29,378 Casual games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-31

Estimated sales: 10k–25k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 419 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $0.20 at GreenManGaming (2019-04-02) · bundled 7×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $0.99 · on sale 9 of 17 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
4420172026Week of 2017-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2017-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2017-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 1 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

24402026-09-15 12:00 — 0 players2026-09-16 20:00 — 1 players2026-09-18 04:00 — 58 players2026-09-19 11:00 — 55 players2026-09-20 19:00 — 93 players2026-09-22 02:00 — 137 players2026-09-23 10:00 — 188 players2026-09-24 17:00 — 177 players2026-09-26 01:00 — 193 players2026-09-27 08:00 — 39 players2026-09-28 16:00 — 137 players2026-09-29 23:00 — 51 players2026-10-01 07:00 — 34 players2026-10-02 14:00 — 1 players2026-10-03 22:00 — 1 players2026-10-05 06:00 — 1 players2026-10-06 14:00 — 3 players2026-10-07 21:00 — 2 players2026-10-09 05:00 — 3 players2026-10-10 12:00 — 2 players2026-10-11 20:00 — 1 players2026-10-13 03:00 — 0 players2026-10-14 11:00 — 4 players2026-10-15 03:00 — 3 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
4480Mar 2016Aug 2026Mar 2016 — avg 7 · peak 58Jun 2016 — avg 7 · peak 28Sep 2016 — avg 6 · peak 47Dec 2016 — avg 18 · peak 406Mar 2017 — avg 61 · peak 771Jun 2017 — avg 103 · peak 1,105Sep 2017 — avg 41 · peak 760Dec 2017 — avg 53 · peak 1,018Mar 2018 — avg 34 · peak 1,014Jun 2018 — avg 3 · peak 38Sep 2018 — avg 14 · peak 238Dec 2018 — avg 19 · peak 502Mar 2019 — avg 1 · peak 5Jun 2019 — avg 3 · peak 52Sep 2019 — avg 3 · peak 200Dec 2019 — avg 1 · peak 3Mar 2020 — avg 84 · peak 3,547Jun 2020 — avg 2 · peak 31Sep 2020 — avg 1 · peak 6Dec 2020 — avg 1 · peak 4Apr 2021 — avg 9 · peak 72Jul 2021 — avg 8 · peak 90Oct 2021 — avg 4 · peak 35Jan 2022 — avg 24 · peak 360Apr 2022 — avg 3 · peak 50Jul 2022 — avg 6 · peak 189Nov 2022 — avg 4 · peak 33Feb 2023 — avg 50 · peak 1,005Jun 2023 — avg 17 · peak 199Dec 2023 — avg 3 · peak 10Aug 2026 — avg 26 · peak 198
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$0.99$0.202016-03-232026-08-242016-03-23 — best price $0.882016-06-23 — best price $0.742016-11-23 — best price $0.592017-01-26 — best price $0.992017-05-11 — best price $0.692017-09-18 — best price $0.992018-01-04 — best price $0.992018-04-16 — best price $0.992018-07-05 — best price $0.992018-10-30 — best price $0.492019-01-10 — best price $0.592019-04-22 — best price $0.492019-08-26 — best price $0.492019-12-01 — best price $0.592020-01-12 — best price $0.692020-03-30 — best price $0.992020-07-27 — best price $0.492020-11-21 — best price $0.592021-02-15 — best price $0.992021-07-08 — best price $0.992021-11-15 — best price $0.992022-02-03 — best price $0.992022-06-20 — best price $0.992022-10-03 — best price $0.992022-12-12 — best price $0.992023-03-23 — best price $0.992023-07-13 — best price $0.992023-11-28 — best price $0.992024-03-11 — best price $0.992024-07-11 — best price $0.992024-11-25 — best price $0.992025-02-24 — best price $0.992025-07-10 — best price $0.992025-11-24 — best price $0.992026-04-06 — best price $0.992026-08-24 — best price $0.49
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Completion

6
achievements tracked
6.2%
earned "Simulation"
4%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSLinuxSingle-playerSteam AchievementsSteam Trading CardsSteam CloudFamily Sharing2 DLC

1 supported languages: English

Post-launch support: 2 DLC released, first 2016-03-23 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)1,40742%6

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

Player tags

IndieCasualPuzzle

Census log

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

Players also track

Supreme Ruler UltimateBronze Age - HD EditionPax NovaRogue HeistTidal Tribe

Similarity via IGDB.