The Game Census
Killer Instinct cover art

Killer Instinct

Iron Galaxy Studios · Xbox Game Studios · 2017-09-27

SteamMicrosoft StoreGame Pass

ActionFree To Play

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer · Perspectives: Side view

Releases: Mar 29, 2016 (Xbox One), Mar 29, 2016 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

The legendary fighting franchise is back with over-the-top action, a wild cast of combatants, rocking reactive music, and C-C-C-COMBO BREAKERS!!! Choose your ultimate combatants each with fluid animations, unique combat tactics, and enthralling special attacks.

Killer Instinct is an Action and Free To Play game released in 2017, free-to-play, with an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (87% of 5684 reviews).

23
playing now
87%
positive of 5.7k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
200,000–500,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
71/100
critic score (8 outlets, IGDB)
82/100
IGDB user rating (45 ratings)
14
Nexus mods (2.2k downloads)
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Verified
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
Free
steam price (US)

23 players in-game as of 2026-10-15 20:00 UTC (census sample)

Killer Instinct is a fighting game, the third in the Killer Instinct series, originally developed by Double Helix Games, followed by Iron Galaxy, under supervision of Ken Lobb and Rare, and published by Microsoft Studios, released as a free-to-play launch game for the Xbox One in 2013. The game is a reboot of the series, though some plot elements from Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct 2 have been retained. Development of the game involves individuals with histories in fighting games on both the developmental and competitive sides. It received positive reviews for its mechanics and engine, but was criticized for its initial lack of content. A second season of downloadable content was released between 2014 and 2015. A third season, along with a port of the game for Windows 10, was released in 2016.

Trailer

Killer Instinct trailer thumbnail

Killer Instinct Launch Trailer

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

Health check

Healthy
  • · 23 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 275 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~34/week).
  • · Review velocity down 14% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 6% of 28,202 Action games in the census by review count.

Current store prices

Microsoft Store$0.00

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $9.99 at Steam (2018-06-22) · bundled 1×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $0.00 · on sale 7 of 7 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
14114120182026Week of 2018-01-01: 93 positiveWeek of 2018-01-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2018-02-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2018-03-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 139 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 28 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 77 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 76 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 85 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 57 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 86 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 74 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 98 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 66 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 101 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 140 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 47 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 138 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 65 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 62 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 54 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 37 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 69 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 58 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 42 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 60 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 82 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 55 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 36 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 127 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 60 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 141 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 107 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 85 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 37 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 19 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 42 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 37 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 4 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

7082026-09-16 06:00 — 22 players2026-09-17 13:00 — 29 players2026-09-18 21:00 — 31 players2026-09-20 04:00 — 25 players2026-09-21 12:00 — 12 players2026-09-22 20:00 — 35 players2026-09-24 03:00 — 38 players2026-09-25 11:00 — 18 players2026-09-26 18:00 — 35 players2026-09-28 02:00 — 43 players2026-09-29 09:00 — 16 players2026-09-30 17:00 — 20 players2026-10-02 00:00 — 39 players2026-10-03 08:00 — 24 players2026-10-04 16:00 — 33 players2026-10-05 23:00 — 52 players2026-10-07 07:00 — 20 players2026-10-08 14:00 — 36 players2026-10-09 22:00 — 46 players2026-10-11 05:00 — 36 players2026-10-12 13:00 — 23 players2026-10-13 21:00 — 25 players2026-10-15 04:00 — 24 players2026-10-15 20:00 — 23 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
14116Oct 2017Aug 2026Oct 2017 — avg 141 · peak 598Jan 2018 — avg 83 · peak 306Apr 2018 — avg 22 · peak 49Jul 2018 — avg 70 · peak 216Oct 2018 — avg 20 · peak 49Jan 2019 — avg 33 · peak 89Apr 2019 — avg 20 · peak 49Jul 2019 — avg 35 · peak 128Oct 2019 — avg 17 · peak 46Jan 2020 — avg 39 · peak 119Apr 2020 — avg 67 · peak 270Jul 2020 — avg 93 · peak 249Oct 2020 — avg 30 · peak 140Jan 2021 — avg 39 · peak 112Apr 2021 — avg 43 · peak 176Jul 2021 — avg 34 · peak 93Oct 2021 — avg 26 · peak 77Jan 2022 — avg 40 · peak 102Apr 2022 — avg 37 · peak 119Jul 2022 — avg 27 · peak 66Oct 2022 — avg 24 · peak 60Jan 2023 — avg 35 · peak 85Apr 2023 — avg 28 · peak 89Jul 2023 — avg 23 · peak 56Oct 2023 — avg 24 · peak 77Jan 2024 — avg 39 · peak 93Apr 2024 — avg 51 · peak 109Jul 2024 — avg 34 · peak 87Oct 2024 — avg 26 · peak 57Jan 2025 — avg 36 · peak 76Apr 2025 — avg 38 · peak 82Jul 2025 — avg 36 · peak 75Oct 2025 — avg 29 · peak 66Jan 2026 — avg 35 · peak 81Apr 2026 — avg 36 · peak 88Jul 2026 — avg 34 · peak 71Aug 2026 — avg 32 · peak 68
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$39.99$0.002017-09-272026-10-092017-09-27 — best price $29.992017-11-28 — best price $39.992018-01-12 — best price $19.992018-02-19 — best price $39.992018-11-21 — best price $9.992019-01-03 — best price $39.992019-06-25 — best price $9.992019-12-03 — best price $39.992020-01-23 — best price $9.992020-04-06 — best price $39.992020-10-29 — best price $9.992020-11-16 — best price $39.992020-12-22 — best price $9.992021-02-15 — best price $39.992021-06-24 — best price $9.992021-12-01 — best price $39.992022-01-27 — best price $9.992022-04-15 — best price $39.992022-06-23 — best price $9.992022-08-29 — best price $39.992022-11-22 — best price $19.992023-01-05 — best price $39.992023-03-16 — best price $9.992023-05-04 — best price $39.992023-06-29 — best price $13.192023-10-05 — best price $39.992026-08-28 — best price $0.002026-09-18 — best price $0.002026-10-09 — best price $0.00
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

2941192026-06-02 — 170 pageviews2026-06-06 — 174 pageviews2026-06-10 — 150 pageviews2026-06-14 — 165 pageviews2026-06-18 — 252 pageviews2026-06-22 — 171 pageviews2026-06-26 — 162 pageviews2026-06-30 — 189 pageviews2026-07-04 — 166 pageviews2026-07-08 — 160 pageviews2026-07-12 — 148 pageviews2026-07-16 — 133 pageviews2026-07-20 — 140 pageviews2026-07-24 — 142 pageviews2026-07-28 — 163 pageviews2026-08-01 — 148 pageviews2026-08-05 — 156 pageviews2026-08-09 — 166 pageviews2026-08-13 — 131 pageviews2026-08-17 — 160 pageviews2026-08-21 — 178 pageviews2026-08-25 — 136 pageviews2026-08-29 — 136 pageviews2026-09-02 — 139 pageviews2026-09-06 — 149 pageviews2026-09-10 — 154 pageviews2026-09-14 — 193 pageviews2026-09-18 — 172 pageviews2026-09-22 — 294 pageviews2026-09-26 — 153 pageviews2026-09-30 — 250 pageviews2026-10-04 — 133 pageviews2026-10-08 — 124 pageviews2026-10-12 — 133 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

60+
achievements tracked
27.7%
earned "Triple Trials!"
9%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsFull controller supportSingle-playerMulti-playerPvPOnline PvPShared/Split Screen PvPShared/Split ScreenSteam AchievementsFull controller supportIn-App PurchasesSteam Cloud1 DLC

7 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil

Post-launch support: 1 DLC released, first 2017-09-27 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Xbox One, Windows (Xbox)108,1680%464
Steam (Steam)8,6370%463

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

PvP2.5DGoreActionArcadeFighting2D FighterControllerCompetitiveMultiplayer

Census log

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

Players also track

Call of Duty®: GhostsDying LightPaladins®Call of Duty®: WWII

Similarity via IGDB.

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