The Game Census
DRAINUS cover art

DRAINUS

Team Ladybug · WSS playground · 2022-05-22

Steam

ActionIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Side view

Releases: May 22, 2022 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Feb 02, 2023 (Nintendo Switch)

This is a side-scrolling shooting game in which you take control of the "Drainus", the Kharlal Empire's most cutting-edge fighter with the ability to absorb energy bullets, and take down the enemy ships zipping through space.

DRAINUS is an Action and Indie game released in 2022, priced at $14.99, with an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 owners and an Overwhelmingly Positive review sentiment (96% of 1162 reviews).

1
playing now
96%
positive of 1.2k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
steam's rating (official)
50,000–100,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
81/100
critic score (1 outlets, IGDB)
80/100
IGDB user rating (10 ratings)
2
Nexus mods (5 downloads)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Verified
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$14.99
steam price (US)

1 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 17:00 UTC (census sample)

Drainus is a 2022 scrolling shooter video game developed by Team Ladybug, co-published by Playism and WSS Playground for Microsoft Windows. A Nintendo Switch version was released on February 2, 2023. It follows Irina, daughter of an ill slave from planet Halpax under rule of the Kharlal empire led by general Izumo, joined by the humanoid soldier Ghenie on a journey to save her father by stealing a starfighter and overthrow the empire to prevent a galactic war. Controlling the titular fighter ship, the player must fight waves of enemies and bosses, while avoiding collision with their projectiles and other obstacles. The Drainus ship is equipped with a "reflector" that absorbs enemy shots for a brief time period to launch counterattacks and its functions can be enhanced via energy tanks.

Health check

Quietly active
  • · 1 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 117 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~15/week).
  • · Review velocity up 23% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 14% of 27,649 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-31

Estimated sales: 23k–52k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,162 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $7.49 at Steam (2025-09-18)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $14.99 · on sale 5 of 10 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
24624620222026Week of 2022-05-01: 246 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 81 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 11 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

602026-09-15 02:00 — 2 players2026-09-16 11:00 — 2 players2026-09-17 18:00 — 2 players2026-09-19 02:00 — 2 players2026-09-20 09:00 — 5 players2026-09-21 17:00 — 1 players2026-09-23 01:00 — 4 players2026-09-24 08:00 — 1 players2026-09-25 16:00 — 3 players2026-09-26 23:00 — 3 players2026-09-28 07:00 — 2 players2026-09-29 14:00 — 2 players2026-09-30 22:00 — 0 players2026-10-02 05:00 — 1 players2026-10-03 13:00 — 3 players2026-10-04 21:00 — 3 players2026-10-06 04:00 — 2 players2026-10-07 12:00 — 1 players2026-10-08 19:00 — 1 players2026-10-10 03:00 — 0 players2026-10-11 10:00 — 4 players2026-10-12 18:00 — 2 players2026-10-14 02:00 — 0 players2026-10-14 17:00 — 1 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
682May 2022Aug 2026May 2022 — avg 68 · peak 185Jun 2022 — avg 13 · peak 60Jul 2022 — avg 6 · peak 24Aug 2022 — avg 5 · peak 21Sep 2022 — avg 4 · peak 18Oct 2022 — avg 2 · peak 7Nov 2022 — avg 3 · peak 10Dec 2022 — avg 4 · peak 13Jan 2023 — avg 4 · peak 14Feb 2023 — avg 3 · peak 11Mar 2023 — avg 5 · peak 20Apr 2023 — avg 2 · peak 7May 2023 — avg 4 · peak 16Jun 2023 — avg 2 · peak 8Jul 2023 — avg 3 · peak 9Aug 2023 — avg 2 · peak 11Sep 2023 — avg 3 · peak 10Oct 2023 — avg 2 · peak 7Nov 2023 — avg 2 · peak 9Dec 2023 — avg 4 · peak 11Jan 2024 — avg 3 · peak 10Feb 2024 — avg 3 · peak 12Mar 2024 — avg 3 · peak 14May 2024 — avg 3 · peak 10Jun 2024 — avg 2 · peak 12Jul 2024 — avg 3 · peak 8Aug 2024 — avg 3 · peak 10Sep 2024 — avg 2 · peak 10Dec 2024 — avg 3 · peak 6Jan 2025 — avg 4 · peak 15Sep 2025 — avg 3 · peak 11Oct 2025 — avg 2 · peak 12Jan 2026 — avg 2 · peak 9Apr 2026 — avg 3 · peak 12May 2026 — avg 2 · peak 6Jul 2026 — avg 2 · peak 7Aug 2026 — avg 2 · peak 8
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$14.99$7.492022-05-222026-07-092022-05-22 — best price $13.492022-06-23 — best price $11.992022-08-05 — best price $11.992022-09-12 — best price $11.992022-11-22 — best price $11.992022-12-03 — best price $11.992022-12-23 — best price $11.992023-01-16 — best price $11.992023-03-09 — best price $11.992023-05-20 — best price $11.992023-06-30 — best price $11.992023-08-01 — best price $11.992023-09-10 — best price $11.992023-11-21 — best price $11.992023-12-02 — best price $11.992024-02-01 — best price $11.992024-03-14 — best price $10.492024-05-25 — best price $10.492024-06-27 — best price $10.492024-08-07 — best price $10.492024-09-18 — best price $10.492024-11-27 — best price $10.492024-12-06 — best price $10.492024-12-19 — best price $10.492025-01-15 — best price $10.492025-06-27 — best price $10.492025-08-01 — best price $10.492025-09-18 — best price $7.492025-12-18 — best price $7.492026-02-09 — best price $7.492026-03-19 — best price $7.492026-04-04 — best price $7.492026-06-19 — best price $7.492026-07-09 — best price $14.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

2402026-05-30 — 5 pageviews2026-06-03 — 6 pageviews2026-06-07 — 8 pageviews2026-06-11 — 10 pageviews2026-06-15 — 16 pageviews2026-06-19 — 19 pageviews2026-06-23 — 16 pageviews2026-06-27 — 6 pageviews2026-07-01 — 15 pageviews2026-07-05 — 10 pageviews2026-07-09 — 8 pageviews2026-07-13 — 7 pageviews2026-07-17 — 10 pageviews2026-07-21 — 5 pageviews2026-07-25 — 10 pageviews2026-07-29 — 4 pageviews2026-08-02 — 18 pageviews2026-08-06 — 14 pageviews2026-08-10 — 6 pageviews2026-08-14 — 7 pageviews2026-08-18 — 7 pageviews2026-08-22 — 6 pageviews2026-08-26 — 10 pageviews2026-08-30 — 12 pageviews2026-09-03 — 8 pageviews2026-09-07 — 5 pageviews2026-09-11 — 19 pageviews2026-09-15 — 19 pageviews2026-09-19 — 17 pageviews2026-09-23 — 16 pageviews2026-09-27 — 10 pageviews2026-10-01 — 8 pageviews2026-10-05 — 14 pageviews2026-10-08 — 7 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

20
achievements tracked
96.4%
earned "The Drainus Takes Flight"
47.4%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsSingle-playerSteam AchievementsPartial Controller SupportSteam CloudFamily Sharing1 DLC

13 supported languages: Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Latin America, Thai, Turkish, Portuguese - Brazil, Traditional Chinese, Korean…

Post-launch support: 1 DLC released, first 2022-05-22 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)1,40118%20
Switch (Nintendo)320%0

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

Player tags

2DAnimeIndieActionArcadeSci-fiShooterBullet HellShoot 'Em UpSingleplayer

Census log

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

Players also track

Star Control®: OriginsImmortal: UnchainedGentleMoon 2Ion FuryBlazing ChromePAWARUMIRICORebel Galaxy Outlaw

Similarity via IGDB.

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