The Game Census
Bandit Kings of Ancient China cover art

Bandit Kings of Ancient China

KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. · 2017-02-21

Steam

Strategy

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer · Perspectives: Bird view / Isometric

Releases: 1989 (Amiga), 1989 (Apple II), 1989 (DOS), 1989 (MSX), Feb 21, 2017 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

"Suikoden: Tenmei no Chikai" was released in Japan in 1988 and later in the US as "Bandit Kings of Ancient China." It is a simulation game based on the novel "Suikoden" or "Water Margin," a Chinese classic. Players play as a bandit being pursued by imperial officers.

Bandit Kings of Ancient China is a Strategy game released in 2017, priced at $12.99, with an estimated 20,000 .. 50,000 owners and a Mostly Positive sentiment (77% of 39 reviews).

24
playing now
77%
positive of 39 reviews
Mostly Positive
steam's rating (official)
20,000–50,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
53/100
IGDB user rating (5 ratings)
pending
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Unknown
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: 0
$12.99
steam price (US)

24 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 09:00 UTC (census sample)

Bandit Kings of Ancient China, also known as Suikoden: Tenmei no Chikai in Japan, is a turn-based strategy video game developed and published by Koei, and released in 1989 for MSX, MS-DOS, Amiga, and Macintosh and in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In 1996, Koei issued a remake for the Japanese Sega Saturn and PlayStation featuring vastly improved graphics and new arrangements of the original songs.

Health check

Quiet
  • · 24 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 8 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~1/week).
  • · Review velocity down 27% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 60% of 14,082 Strategy games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-09-02

All-time low: $6.49 at Steam (2024-09-23)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $12.99 · on sale 1 of 2 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
3320172026Week of 2017-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2017-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2017-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 1 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

4602026-09-15 10:00 — 22 players2026-09-16 18:00 — 13 players2026-09-18 01:00 — 18 players2026-09-19 09:00 — 31 players2026-09-20 17:00 — 15 players2026-09-22 00:00 — 21 players2026-09-23 08:00 — 46 players2026-09-24 15:00 — 17 players2026-09-25 23:00 — 24 players2026-09-27 06:00 — 33 players2026-09-28 14:00 — 23 players2026-09-29 22:00 — 0 players2026-10-01 05:00 — 12 players2026-10-02 13:00 — 34 players2026-10-03 20:00 — 12 players2026-10-05 04:00 — 16 players2026-10-06 12:00 — 20 players2026-10-07 19:00 — 5 players2026-10-09 03:00 — 15 players2026-10-10 10:00 — 31 players2026-10-11 18:00 — 10 players2026-10-13 02:00 — 13 players2026-10-14 09:00 — 24 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
243Feb 2017Aug 2026Feb 2017 — avg 4 · peak 16May 2017 — avg 4 · peak 15Aug 2017 — avg 3 · peak 11Nov 2017 — avg 3 · peak 13Feb 2018 — avg 5 · peak 18May 2018 — avg 5 · peak 16Aug 2018 — avg 7 · peak 20Nov 2018 — avg 6 · peak 17Feb 2019 — avg 8 · peak 26May 2019 — avg 8 · peak 24Aug 2019 — avg 7 · peak 19Nov 2019 — avg 10 · peak 29Feb 2020 — avg 9 · peak 27May 2020 — avg 17 · peak 40Aug 2020 — avg 14 · peak 36Nov 2020 — avg 13 · peak 33Feb 2021 — avg 17 · peak 38May 2021 — avg 16 · peak 36Aug 2021 — avg 17 · peak 46Nov 2021 — avg 17 · peak 41Feb 2022 — avg 22 · peak 53May 2022 — avg 19 · peak 43Aug 2022 — avg 18 · peak 38Nov 2022 — avg 17 · peak 38Feb 2023 — avg 16 · peak 41May 2023 — avg 18 · peak 39Aug 2023 — avg 15 · peak 34Nov 2023 — avg 19 · peak 45Feb 2024 — avg 19 · peak 43May 2024 — avg 19 · peak 43Aug 2024 — avg 20 · peak 46Nov 2024 — avg 21 · peak 47Feb 2025 — avg 20 · peak 48May 2025 — avg 21 · peak 46Aug 2025 — avg 19 · peak 45Nov 2025 — avg 19 · peak 46Feb 2026 — avg 22 · peak 56May 2026 — avg 24 · peak 50Aug 2026 — avg 22 · peak 48
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$12.99$6.492017-02-222026-05-052017-02-22 — best price $12.992017-05-22 — best price $9.092017-05-29 — best price $12.992017-09-15 — best price $9.092017-09-25 — best price $12.992018-02-28 — best price $9.092018-03-12 — best price $12.992018-08-06 — best price $9.092018-08-20 — best price $12.992018-11-09 — best price $9.092018-11-22 — best price $12.992019-02-04 — best price $9.092019-02-17 — best price $12.992019-06-26 — best price $9.092019-07-09 — best price $12.992019-11-08 — best price $9.092019-11-22 — best price $12.992020-01-23 — best price $9.092020-01-27 — best price $12.992020-03-05 — best price $9.092020-03-09 — best price $12.992021-04-22 — best price $9.092021-04-26 — best price $12.992022-04-27 — best price $7.792022-05-09 — best price $12.992024-09-23 — best price $6.492024-10-07 — best price $12.992025-06-09 — best price $6.492025-06-23 — best price $12.992026-04-23 — best price $6.492026-05-05 — best price $12.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

63132026-05-29 — 29 pageviews2026-06-02 — 21 pageviews2026-06-06 — 25 pageviews2026-06-10 — 16 pageviews2026-06-14 — 24 pageviews2026-06-18 — 26 pageviews2026-06-22 — 19 pageviews2026-06-26 — 19 pageviews2026-06-30 — 24 pageviews2026-07-04 — 21 pageviews2026-07-08 — 22 pageviews2026-07-12 — 22 pageviews2026-07-16 — 20 pageviews2026-07-20 — 34 pageviews2026-07-24 — 30 pageviews2026-07-28 — 42 pageviews2026-08-01 — 35 pageviews2026-08-05 — 63 pageviews2026-08-09 — 28 pageviews2026-08-13 — 31 pageviews2026-08-17 — 21 pageviews2026-08-21 — 17 pageviews2026-08-25 — 38 pageviews2026-08-29 — 35 pageviews2026-09-02 — 20 pageviews2026-09-06 — 26 pageviews2026-09-10 — 25 pageviews2026-09-14 — 18 pageviews2026-09-18 — 21 pageviews2026-09-22 — 29 pageviews2026-09-26 — 35 pageviews2026-09-30 — 24 pageviews2026-10-04 — 17 pageviews2026-10-07 — 26 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Details

WindowsSingle-playerSteam CloudFamily Sharing

1 supported languages: Japanese

Player tags

Strategy

Census log

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

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Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Wikipedia ↗