The Game Census
Game Dev Story cover art

Game Dev Story

Kairosoft Co.,Ltd · 2022-03-27

SteamPlayStation StoreMicrosoft Store

CasualIndieSimulationStrategy

Modes: Single player

Releases: Oct 11, 2018 (Nintendo Switch), Mar 27, 2022 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Feb 11, 2021 (PlayStation 4), Jul 12, 2010 (Android), Jul 10, 2010 (iOS), Sep 15, 2023 (Xbox One)

Work hard and you may reach the top of the video game industry!

25
playing now
90%
positive of 1.5k reviews
Very Positive
steam rating
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
70/100
IGDB user rating (30 ratings)
7h
to beat · completionist 12h
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$8.99
steam price (US)

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

Game Dev Story is a simulation video game developed and published by Kairosoft for Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch. It was released for Windows in April 1997, on iOS and Android on October 9, 2010, for Windows Phone on July 6, 2015, for Nintendo Switch on October 11, 2018, on PlayStation 4 on February 11, 2021, on Steam on March 27, 2022, and on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on September 15, 2023. The game follows a player-controlled video game company and its attempts to expand into a sales powerhouse over time. As a simulation, the game and the direction of the company is controlled by the player, following a parallel timeline of the video game industry and its history. The game was released to positive reviews, with many reviewers focusing on Game Dev Story's addictive aspects and its witty references to video game pop culture.

Health check

Insufficient data
  • · Not enough review history collected yet to judge health.
  • · Top 16% of 9,617 Casual games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 30k–67k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,493 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

Microsoft Store$11.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $2.69 at Steam (2025-12-18)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $11.99 · on sale 10 of 11 observed days · $9.30 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Players online

46132026-08-11 19:00 — 14 players2026-08-12 11:00 — 40 players2026-08-13 03:00 — 32 players2026-08-13 18:00 — 21 players2026-08-14 10:00 — 36 players2026-08-15 02:00 — 25 players2026-08-15 18:00 — 18 players2026-08-16 10:00 — 37 players2026-08-17 02:00 — 26 players2026-08-17 18:00 — 32 players2026-08-18 09:00 — 33 players2026-08-19 01:00 — 19 players2026-08-19 17:00 — 26 players2026-08-20 09:00 — 31 players2026-08-21 00:00 — 17 players2026-08-21 16:00 — 27 players2026-08-22 08:00 — 36 players2026-08-23 00:00 — 14 players2026-08-23 16:00 — 46 players2026-08-24 07:00 — 25 players2026-08-24 23:00 — 14 players2026-08-25 15:00 — 39 players2026-08-26 07:00 — 20 players2026-08-27 00:00 — 16 players2026-08-27 15:00 — 23 players2026-08-28 07:00 — 21 players2026-08-28 21:00 — 13 players2026-08-29 13:00 — 34 players2026-08-30 05:00 — 25 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$12.00$2.692022-03-282026-08-282022-03-28 — best price $9.362022-05-18 — best price $8.992022-06-03 — best price $8.992022-07-07 — best price $8.992022-08-22 — best price $8.992022-10-03 — best price $8.992022-11-29 — best price $8.992023-02-02 — best price $6.292023-03-16 — best price $4.492023-04-27 — best price $4.492023-06-30 — best price $4.492023-08-05 — best price $4.492023-09-19 — best price $10.792023-10-14 — best price $4.492023-11-21 — best price $3.592023-12-21 — best price $3.412024-02-11 — best price $3.322024-03-14 — best price $2.962024-06-11 — best price $2.872024-06-27 — best price $2.872024-08-15 — best price $4.492024-09-28 — best price $4.492024-11-27 — best price $3.412024-12-19 — best price $3.322025-01-16 — best price $8.992025-03-20 — best price $8.992025-05-12 — best price $8.992025-07-10 — best price $8.992025-08-29 — best price $8.992025-10-06 — best price $8.992026-01-05 — best price $8.992026-01-20 — best price $8.992026-03-26 — best price $8.992026-06-14 — best price $8.992026-08-28 — best price $11.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

471152026-05-31 — 26 pageviews2026-06-03 — 17 pageviews2026-06-06 — 15 pageviews2026-06-09 — 471 pageviews2026-06-12 — 60 pageviews2026-06-15 — 48 pageviews2026-06-18 — 27 pageviews2026-06-21 — 54 pageviews2026-06-24 — 51 pageviews2026-06-27 — 62 pageviews2026-06-30 — 47 pageviews2026-07-03 — 42 pageviews2026-07-06 — 42 pageviews2026-07-09 — 37 pageviews2026-07-12 — 38 pageviews2026-07-15 — 31 pageviews2026-07-18 — 29 pageviews2026-07-21 — 32 pageviews2026-07-24 — 26 pageviews2026-07-27 — 32 pageviews2026-07-30 — 45 pageviews2026-08-02 — 18 pageviews2026-08-05 — 35 pageviews2026-08-08 — 34 pageviews2026-08-11 — 31 pageviews2026-08-14 — 17 pageviews2026-08-17 — 29 pageviews2026-08-20 — 37 pageviews2026-08-23 — 20 pageviews2026-08-26 — 35 pageviews2026-08-28 — 21 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

6
achievements tracked
86.1%
earned "Just started a game company."
29%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsFull controller supportSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFull controller supportSteam CloudFamily Sharing

14 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Thai, Turkish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean…

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)1,70727%6
PS4 (PlayStation)57545%6
Xbox Series, Xbox One (Xbox)31243%10
Switch (Nintendo)550%0

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

Player tags

2DCuteCasualBuildingLife SimSoftwareStrategyManagementSimulationProgramming

Census log

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

Players also track

Star Control®: OriginsSurvivalistAnother Brick in The MallForce of NatureMashinkyWeapon Shop FantasyStartup CompanyAncient Cities

Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Wikipedia ↗