The Game Census
Metaphobia cover art

Metaphobia

Digital Mosaic Games · 2020-02-10

Steam

AdventureFree To PlayIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Third person

Releases: Jun 20, 2019 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

Metaphobia is an investigative mystery game in the style of classic 1990’s point-and-click adventures. Take control of Richard Elmstat in his journey to solve his father's murder.

Metaphobia is a free-to-play Adventure, Free To Play, Indie game released in 2020, with an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 owners and Very Positive reviews (85% of 504 reviews).— census verdict as of 2026-09-20

1
playing now
85%
positive of 504 reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
50,000–100,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
Free
steam price (US)

1 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 18:00 UTC (census sample)

Shortly after being elected mayor, Carl Elmstat is murdered by a thief who is quickly caught, convicted, and sent to prison – case closed. Carl’s son Richard however, is unsettled by the details and decides to investigate further on his own. His prime suspect? His father’s political rival – Edward Raban. Throughout the investigation, Richard will find out that the truth behind the murder is hidden deep under the ground – deeper than he ever could have imagined.(Storyline via IGDB)

Health check

Quiet
  • · 1 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 22 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~3/week).
  • · Review velocity up 16% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 19% of 28,739 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-31

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
484820202026Week of 2020-02-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 48 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 2 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

402026-09-15 03:00 — 0 players2026-09-16 11:00 — 0 players2026-09-17 19:00 — 1 players2026-09-19 02:00 — 0 players2026-09-20 10:00 — 0 players2026-09-21 18:00 — 0 players2026-09-23 01:00 — 0 players2026-09-24 09:00 — 0 players2026-09-25 16:00 — 1 players2026-09-27 00:00 — 2 players2026-09-28 07:00 — 3 players2026-09-29 15:00 — 0 players2026-09-30 22:00 — 2 players2026-10-02 06:00 — 0 players2026-10-03 13:00 — 2 players2026-10-04 21:00 — 1 players2026-10-06 05:00 — 0 players2026-10-07 12:00 — 0 players2026-10-08 20:00 — 2 players2026-10-10 03:00 — 0 players2026-10-11 11:00 — 0 players2026-10-12 19:00 — 1 players2026-10-14 02:00 — 0 players2026-10-14 18:00 — 1 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
171Feb 2020Oct 2024Feb 2020 — avg 15 · peak 49Mar 2020 — avg 17 · peak 46Apr 2020 — avg 13 · peak 29May 2020 — avg 6 · peak 19Jun 2020 — avg 3 · peak 12Jul 2020 — avg 3 · peak 9Aug 2020 — avg 2 · peak 10Sep 2020 — avg 2 · peak 8Oct 2020 — avg 2 · peak 7Nov 2020 — avg 2 · peak 8Dec 2020 — avg 2 · peak 9Jan 2021 — avg 2 · peak 8Feb 2021 — avg 2 · peak 6Mar 2021 — avg 2 · peak 5Apr 2021 — avg 1 · peak 5May 2021 — avg 1 · peak 5Jun 2021 — avg 2 · peak 6Jul 2021 — avg 1 · peak 6Aug 2021 — avg 1 · peak 5Sep 2021 — avg 1 · peak 5Oct 2021 — avg 2 · peak 5Nov 2021 — avg 1 · peak 6Dec 2021 — avg 2 · peak 5Jan 2022 — avg 2 · peak 5Feb 2022 — avg 1 · peak 7Mar 2022 — avg 1 · peak 4Jun 2022 — avg 1 · peak 3Sep 2023 — avg 1 · peak 3Nov 2023 — avg 1 · peak 5Dec 2023 — avg 1 · peak 5Jan 2024 — avg 2 · peak 7Feb 2024 — avg 1 · peak 6Mar 2024 — avg 1 · peak 4Apr 2024 — avg 2 · peak 5Oct 2024 — avg 1 · peak 4

▼ −1 avg players (−37.7%) vs prior month — Oct 2024

Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Completion

6
achievements tracked
48%
earned "Bookworm"
10.5%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFamily Sharing1 DLC

Post-launch support: 1 DLC released, first 2020-02-10 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)33740%6

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

Player tags

NoirIndieRetroMysteryAdventureAtmosphericFree to PlayInvestigationPoint & ClickPixel Graphics

Census log

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

Players also track

MasochisiaRusty Lake HotelOmensight: Definitive EditionUnforeseen IncidentsQuern - Undying ThoughtsRusty Lake: RootsRusty Lake ParadiseApsulov: End of Gods

Similarity via IGDB.

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