The Game Census
Black Mesa cover art

Black Mesa

Crowbar Collective · 2020-03-06

Steam

ActionAdventureIndie

Franchise: Half-Life · Modes: Single player, Multiplayer · Perspectives: First person

Releases: Sep 14, 2012 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Oct 28, 2016 (Linux)

Relive Half-Life.

Black Mesa is an Action, Adventure, Indie game released in 2020, priced at $19.99, with an estimated 2,000,000 .. 5,000,000 owners and Very Positive (95% of 144834 reviews).

345
playing now
95%
positive of 145k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
2,000,000–5,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
21
twitch viewers (latest)
10.5
viewers/channel (concentration)
88/100
critic score (3 outlets, IGDB)
88/100
IGDB user rating (549 ratings)
40
Nexus mods (27k downloads)
85/100
opencritic · mighty · 93% recommend · from 16 critics
11h
to beat · rushed 9.5h · completionist 60h
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$19.99
steam price (US)

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

Black Mesa is a 2020 first-person shooter video game developed and published by Crowbar Collective. It is a fan-made remake of Half-Life (1998) in the Source game engine. Originally published as a free mod in September 2012, Black Mesa was approved for commercial release by Valve, the developers of Half-Life. The first commercial version was published as an early-access release in May 2015 with an abridged campaign, followed by a full release in March 2020 restoring the final chapters.

Trailer

Black Mesa trailer thumbnail

Black Mesa - 1.0 Gameplay Launch Trailer

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

Health check

Cooling
  • · 345 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 6,705 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~838/week).
  • · Review velocity down 47% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 1% of 27,667 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-09-02

Estimated sales: 2.9M–6.5M copies

Review-multiple estimate from 145,239 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $1.99 at Steam (2025-05-12) · bundled 2×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $19.99 · on sale 5 of 10 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
6.3k6.3k20182026Week of 2018-03-01: 235 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 191 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 293 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 44 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 216 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 221 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 148 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 110 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 91 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 930 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 247 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 226 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 221 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 150 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 122 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 135 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 1,245 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 1,017 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 29 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 258 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 150 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 240 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 1,175 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 25 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 3,183 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 55 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 2,381 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 60 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 1,236 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 27 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 5,925 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 261 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 3,335 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 155 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 1,567 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 88 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 1,132 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 58 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 1,850 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 101 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 1,037 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 59 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 768 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 40 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 815 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 40 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 6,276 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 135 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 2,330 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 136 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 2,109 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 120 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 1,367 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 85 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 1,035 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 65 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 1,022 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 67 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 1,662 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 88 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 1,072 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 69 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 2,157 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 134 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 1,420 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 76 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 2,201 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 201 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 1,332 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 97 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 1,675 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 82 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 1,560 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 93 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 1,779 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 137 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 1,065 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 64 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 1,358 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 74 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 1,008 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 56 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 781 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 42 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 1,516 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 77 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 1,762 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 111 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 895 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 65 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 1,080 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 77 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 1,088 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 78 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 1,650 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 92 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 1,356 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 99 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 1,509 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 78 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 916 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 50 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 1,019 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 78 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 798 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 52 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 2,170 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 174 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 1,335 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 68 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 1,490 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 119 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 1,034 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 51 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 1,149 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 63 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 1,205 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 86 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 2,021 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 100 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 1,708 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 119 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 1,487 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 88 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 1,461 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 97 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 943 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 59 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 1,334 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 158 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 902 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 77 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 775 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 51 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 1,255 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 85 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 1,168 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 73 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 831 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 56 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 612 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 40 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 1,457 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 105 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 1,589 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 118 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 1,193 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 92 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 761 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 43 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 1,093 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 82 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 598 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 37 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 2,661 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 255 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 1,691 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 151 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 2,545 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 218 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 1,355 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 132 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 826 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 84 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 864 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 85 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 1,477 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 85 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 1,644 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 155 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 1,228 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 83 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 954 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 85 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 1,004 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 81 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 765 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 65 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 687 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 66 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 695 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 56 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 883 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 82 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 651 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 58 negativeWeek of 2026-09-01: 532 positiveWeek of 2026-09-01: 41 negativeWeek of 2026-10-01: 234 positiveWeek of 2026-10-01: 15 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

9042932026-09-15 11:00 — 381 players2026-09-16 19:00 — 656 players2026-09-18 03:00 — 356 players2026-09-19 10:00 — 545 players2026-09-20 18:00 — 904 players2026-09-22 02:00 — 423 players2026-09-23 09:00 — 337 players2026-09-24 17:00 — 603 players2026-09-26 00:00 — 484 players2026-09-27 08:00 — 506 players2026-09-28 15:00 — 666 players2026-09-29 23:00 — 459 players2026-10-01 06:00 — 293 players2026-10-02 14:00 — 585 players2026-10-03 21:00 — 703 players2026-10-05 05:00 — 323 players2026-10-06 13:00 — 516 players2026-10-07 20:00 — 545 players2026-10-09 04:00 — 338 players2026-10-10 11:00 — 638 players2026-10-11 19:00 — 879 players2026-10-13 03:00 — 349 players2026-10-14 10:00 — 345 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
2.8k109May 2015Aug 2026May 2015 — avg 574 · peak 1,697Sep 2015 — avg 109 · peak 237Jan 2016 — avg 329 · peak 1,312May 2016 — avg 130 · peak 388Sep 2016 — avg 116 · peak 253Jan 2017 — avg 272 · peak 875May 2017 — avg 171 · peak 365Sep 2017 — avg 205 · peak 436Jan 2018 — avg 382 · peak 1,186May 2018 — avg 274 · peak 1,053Sep 2018 — avg 135 · peak 276Jan 2019 — avg 235 · peak 567May 2019 — avg 126 · peak 268Sep 2019 — avg 213 · peak 426Jan 2020 — avg 1,002 · peak 2,622May 2020 — avg 863 · peak 1,899Sep 2020 — avg 449 · peak 830Jan 2021 — avg 1,064 · peak 2,510May 2021 — avg 843 · peak 2,723Sep 2021 — avg 1,207 · peak 4,667Jan 2022 — avg 933 · peak 2,156May 2022 — avg 532 · peak 988Sep 2022 — avg 695 · peak 2,284Jan 2023 — avg 865 · peak 1,983May 2023 — avg 1,334 · peak 4,943Sep 2023 — avg 735 · peak 2,398Jan 2024 — avg 789 · peak 1,847May 2024 — avg 559 · peak 1,112Sep 2024 — avg 576 · peak 1,317Jan 2025 — avg 862 · peak 1,923May 2025 — avg 1,820 · peak 6,314Sep 2025 — avg 642 · peak 1,201Jan 2026 — avg 881 · peak 1,873May 2026 — avg 598 · peak 1,106Aug 2026 — avg 550 · peak 979
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Chart history

PositiveNegative
42422026-09-222026-10-142026-09-22: 8 new positive2026-09-23: 3 new positive2026-09-23: 3 new negative2026-09-24: 15 new positive2026-09-24: 2 new negative2026-09-25: 11 new positive2026-09-26: 11 new positive2026-09-26: 2 new negative2026-09-27: 23 new positive2026-09-28: 16 new positive2026-09-28: 2 new negative2026-09-29: 8 new positive2026-09-29: 1 new negative2026-09-30: 18 new positive2026-09-30: 3 new negative2026-10-01: 16 new positive2026-10-01: 3 new negative2026-10-02: 15 new positive2026-10-02: 1 new negative2026-10-03: 8 new positive2026-10-03: 5 new negative2026-10-04: 42 new positive2026-10-04: 5 new negative2026-10-05: 14 new positive2026-10-06: 14 new positive2026-10-08: 23 new positive2026-10-08: 1 new negative2026-10-09: 14 new positive2026-10-09: 3 new negative2026-10-10: 7 new positive2026-10-10: 1 new negative2026-10-13: 17 new positive2026-10-14: 11 new positive2026-10-14: 1 new negative
New Steam reviews per day (census review snapshots). Positive above the line, negative below.

Price history

$19.99$1.992015-05-062026-07-092015-05-06 — best price $19.992015-11-25 — best price $9.592016-01-26 — best price $9.992016-06-23 — best price $7.992016-11-23 — best price $7.992017-06-22 — best price $7.992017-11-22 — best price $7.992018-02-15 — best price $7.992018-06-22 — best price $7.992018-11-21 — best price $7.992019-02-04 — best price $7.992019-10-28 — best price $11.992019-12-19 — best price $15.992020-06-25 — best price $12.992020-11-25 — best price $9.992021-02-11 — best price $9.992021-06-24 — best price $7.992021-10-28 — best price $7.992021-12-22 — best price $4.992022-03-21 — best price $9.992022-09-20 — best price $4.992022-11-22 — best price $9.992023-03-16 — best price $9.992023-06-29 — best price $4.992023-09-18 — best price $3.992023-11-21 — best price $3.992024-02-08 — best price $3.992024-06-27 — best price $3.992024-08-24 — best price $4.992024-11-27 — best price $4.992025-02-24 — best price $4.992025-05-12 — best price $1.992025-08-15 — best price $3.992025-11-27 — best price $4.992026-02-12 — best price $3.992026-06-25 — best price $3.992026-07-09 — best price $19.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

3281902026-06-04 — 227 pageviews2026-06-08 — 221 pageviews2026-06-12 — 198 pageviews2026-06-16 — 246 pageviews2026-06-20 — 208 pageviews2026-06-24 — 205 pageviews2026-06-28 — 294 pageviews2026-07-02 — 262 pageviews2026-07-06 — 285 pageviews2026-07-10 — 244 pageviews2026-07-14 — 250 pageviews2026-07-18 — 200 pageviews2026-07-22 — 300 pageviews2026-07-26 — 249 pageviews2026-07-30 — 269 pageviews2026-08-03 — 244 pageviews2026-08-07 — 242 pageviews2026-08-11 — 262 pageviews2026-08-15 — 203 pageviews2026-08-19 — 216 pageviews2026-08-23 — 271 pageviews2026-08-27 — 244 pageviews2026-08-31 — 279 pageviews2026-09-04 — 244 pageviews2026-09-08 — 244 pageviews2026-09-12 — 218 pageviews2026-09-16 — 208 pageviews2026-09-20 — 225 pageviews2026-09-24 — 205 pageviews2026-09-28 — 257 pageviews2026-10-02 — 223 pageviews2026-10-06 — 222 pageviews2026-10-10 — 196 pageviews2026-10-13 — 234 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Twitch viewers

2.2k02026-09-30 22:34 — 11 viewers2026-10-01 07:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-01 16:34 — 6 viewers2026-10-02 01:34 — 20 viewers2026-10-02 10:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-02 19:34 — 10 viewers2026-10-03 04:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-03 13:34 — 15 viewers2026-10-03 22:34 — 3 viewers2026-10-04 07:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-04 16:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-05 01:34 — 10 viewers2026-10-05 11:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-05 20:34 — 2 viewers2026-10-06 05:34 — 5 viewers2026-10-06 14:34 — 39 viewers2026-10-06 23:34 — 3 viewers2026-10-07 08:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-07 17:34 — 26 viewers2026-10-08 02:34 — 3 viewers2026-10-08 11:34 — 3 viewers2026-10-08 20:34 — 6 viewers2026-10-09 05:34 — 17 viewers2026-10-09 14:34 — 21 viewers2026-10-09 23:35 — 27 viewers2026-10-10 08:34 — 20 viewers2026-10-10 17:35 — 16 viewers2026-10-11 02:34 — 22 viewers2026-10-11 11:34 — 29 viewers2026-10-11 20:35 — 35 viewers2026-10-12 05:34 — 3 viewers2026-10-12 14:34 — 47 viewers2026-10-12 23:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-13 08:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-13 17:34 — 30 viewers2026-10-14 02:34 — 6 viewers2026-10-14 11:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-14 20:34 — 62 viewers2026-10-14 21:34 — 21 viewers
Hourly Twitch viewers (census snapshots).

Completion

50
achievements tracked
61.1%
earned "Brownian Motion"
9.6%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsLinuxSingle-playerMulti-playerPvPOnline PvPCross-Platform MultiplayerSteam AchievementsSteam Trading CardsCaptions availableSteam WorkshopSteam Input API Support

29 supported languages: English, German, Spanish - Spain, Finnish, Norwegian, French, Portuguese - Portugal, Russian, Italian, Czech, Danish, Dutch…

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)79,8424%50

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

FPSActionAliensHorrorRemakeSci-fiClassicShooterZombiesAdventure

Census log

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

Recent updates

Players also track

Half-LifeHalf-Life 2Hyper Light DrifterSOMAUnclaimed WorldGET EVENZigguratJudgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation

Similarity via IGDB.

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