The Game Census
Blade of Darkness cover art

Blade of Darkness

Rebel Act Studios · SNEG · 2021-10-07

SteamGOGPlayStation StoreMicrosoft Store

ActionRPG

Modes: Single player

Releases: Oct 07, 2021 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Nov 24, 2022 (Nintendo Switch), Mar 15, 2023 (Xbox One), Mar 15, 2023 (Xbox Series X|S), Mar 15, 2023 (PlayStation 4), Mar 15, 2023 (PlayStation 5)

Blade of Darkness is a hardcore fantasy action-adventure with unique combat mechanics and role-playing elements that pioneered the “soulsborne” genre. Pick one of four characters to hack and slash through a gory quest to save the world from the forces of Chaos.

7
playing now
90%
positive of 2.6k reviews
Very Positive
steam rating
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
80/100
IGDB user rating (9 ratings)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$5.99
steam price (US)

7 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 05:00 UTC (census sample)

Severance: Blade of Darkness is an action-adventure game developed by Rebel Act Studios and originally published by Codemasters. The game was released in North America and Europe for Microsoft Windows in February 2001, receiving generally favorable reviews. A remastered version was released on Steam and GOG in October 2021, and one year later on Nintendo Switch through the Nintendo eShop, marking the debut of this game on any home console. It was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in March 2023.

Health check

Quietly active
  • · 7 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 155 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~19/week).
  • · Review velocity down 4% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Current weekly pace is under 5% of the all-time peak week (706 reviews).
  • · Top 23% of 10,862 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-30

Estimated sales: 51k–116k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 2,574 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

lowest across shops (ITAD)$5.99-60%
Microsoft Store$14.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $1.79 at GOG (2014-08-08) · bundled 4×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $14.99 · on sale 41 of 76 observed days · $13.20 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
66366320212026Week of 2021-10-01: 663 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 43 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 272 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 91 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 58 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 36 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 54 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 3 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

2232026-08-11 19:00 — 20 players2026-08-12 11:00 — 14 players2026-08-13 03:00 — 4 players2026-08-13 18:00 — 15 players2026-08-14 10:00 — 15 players2026-08-15 02:00 — 13 players2026-08-15 18:00 — 22 players2026-08-16 10:00 — 17 players2026-08-17 02:00 — 3 players2026-08-17 18:00 — 11 players2026-08-18 09:00 — 10 players2026-08-19 01:00 — 8 players2026-08-19 17:00 — 18 players2026-08-20 09:00 — 9 players2026-08-21 00:00 — 9 players2026-08-21 16:00 — 19 players2026-08-22 08:00 — 12 players2026-08-23 00:00 — 5 players2026-08-23 15:00 — 16 players2026-08-24 07:00 — 6 players2026-08-24 23:00 — 7 players2026-08-25 15:00 — 18 players2026-08-26 07:00 — 4 players2026-08-26 23:00 — 7 players2026-08-27 15:00 — 16 players2026-08-28 07:00 — 7 players2026-08-28 23:00 — 18 players2026-08-29 13:00 — 14 players2026-08-30 05:00 — 7 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$14.99$0.002021-10-072026-08-292021-10-07 — best price $11.992021-12-13 — best price $10.042022-02-14 — best price $10.042022-05-06 — best price $8.992022-07-07 — best price $14.992022-10-10 — best price $8.992022-11-23 — best price $8.992023-01-10 — best price $14.992023-03-23 — best price $14.992023-06-11 — best price $7.492023-08-28 — best price $7.492023-11-09 — best price $14.992024-01-16 — best price $14.992024-03-02 — best price $14.992024-05-15 — best price $5.992024-07-18 — best price $14.992024-09-08 — best price $14.992024-10-23 — best price $14.992024-12-18 — best price $14.992025-01-31 — best price $14.992025-04-16 — best price $5.992025-06-10 — best price $5.992025-08-17 — best price $5.992025-10-02 — best price $5.992025-10-24 — best price $14.992025-12-07 — best price $14.992026-01-19 — best price $14.992026-03-05 — best price $14.992026-04-07 — best price $5.992026-05-16 — best price $14.992026-06-24 — best price $14.992026-08-12 — best price $14.992026-08-29 — best price $14.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

141432026-05-31 — 94 pageviews2026-06-03 — 74 pageviews2026-06-06 — 60 pageviews2026-06-09 — 61 pageviews2026-06-12 — 62 pageviews2026-06-15 — 66 pageviews2026-06-18 — 49 pageviews2026-06-21 — 70 pageviews2026-06-24 — 65 pageviews2026-06-27 — 60 pageviews2026-06-30 — 54 pageviews2026-07-03 — 58 pageviews2026-07-06 — 60 pageviews2026-07-09 — 56 pageviews2026-07-12 — 58 pageviews2026-07-15 — 55 pageviews2026-07-18 — 61 pageviews2026-07-21 — 73 pageviews2026-07-24 — 67 pageviews2026-07-27 — 45 pageviews2026-07-30 — 62 pageviews2026-08-02 — 48 pageviews2026-08-05 — 90 pageviews2026-08-08 — 85 pageviews2026-08-11 — 90 pageviews2026-08-14 — 57 pageviews2026-08-17 — 58 pageviews2026-08-20 — 61 pageviews2026-08-23 — 78 pageviews2026-08-26 — 78 pageviews2026-08-28 — 73 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

56
achievements tracked
77.4%
earned "First Blood"
17.3%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsFull controller supportSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFull controller supportSteam CloudFamily Sharing

6 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Simplified Chinese

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)1,9773%56
Xbox Series, Xbox One (Xbox)4662%53
PS5 (PlayStation)3483%54
PS4 (PlayStation)889%54
Switch (Nintendo)690%0
Switch (Nintendo)10%0

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

Player tags

RPGDarkGoreActionCombatFantasyViolentDifficultAction RPGSouls-like

Census log

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

Players also track

Immortal: UnchainedShadows: AwakeningGreedFallEternity: The Last UnicornWarhammer: ChaosbaneGOD EATER 3Torchlight IIIDragon Marked For Death

Similarity via IGDB.

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