The Game Census
Nuclear Option cover art

Nuclear Option

Shockfront Studios · 2023-10-15

Steam

ActionIndieSimulationEarly Access

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative · Perspectives: First person

Releases: Oct 16, 2023 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

Fly near-future aircraft with immersive physics across dynamic battlefields, facing land, air, and sea threats. Wage war against AI or rival pilots using an array of advanced weaponry, including tactical and strategic nuclear weapons capable of annihilating anything in your path.

Nuclear Option is a 2023 Action, Indie, Simulation, and Early Access game priced at $19.99, with an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 owners and an Overwhelmingly Positive review sentiment (96% of 11,018 reviews).

545
playing now
96%
positive of 11k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
steam's rating (official)
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
0
twitch viewers (latest)
8
Nexus mods (3.0k downloads)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$19.99
steam price (US)

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

Trailer

Nuclear Option trailer thumbnail

Nuclear Option - Early Access Launch

≈471,559 YouTube results for this game's trailer search

Health check

Healthy
  • · 545 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 4,569 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~571/week).
  • · Review velocity up 147% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 5% of 27,808 Action games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 228k–512k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 11,387 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $14.39 at Steam (2024-09-16)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $19.99 · on sale 0 of 1 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
65265220232026Week of 2023-10-01: 193 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 221 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 172 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 130 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 92 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 207 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 166 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 154 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 181 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 170 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 102 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 170 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 158 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 262 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 29 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 217 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 213 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 144 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 218 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 202 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 180 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 258 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 194 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 242 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 255 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 204 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 228 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 347 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 19 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 645 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 36 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 535 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 31 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 546 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 28 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 599 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 652 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 35 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 471 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 38 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 541 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 25 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 219 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 12 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1.2k02026-09-15 15:00 — 625 players2026-09-16 23:00 — 768 players2026-09-18 07:00 — 430 players2026-09-19 14:00 — 985 players2026-09-20 22:00 — 1,166 players2026-09-22 06:00 — 458 players2026-09-23 13:00 — 515 players2026-09-24 21:00 — 824 players2026-09-26 04:00 — 0 players2026-09-27 12:00 — 677 players2026-09-28 19:00 — 942 players2026-09-30 03:00 — 658 players2026-10-01 10:00 — 385 players2026-10-02 18:00 — 737 players2026-10-04 02:00 — 760 players2026-10-05 09:00 — 400 players2026-10-06 17:00 — 750 players2026-10-08 00:00 — 765 players2026-10-09 08:00 — 414 players2026-10-10 15:00 — 917 players2026-10-11 23:00 — 916 players2026-10-13 07:00 — 387 players2026-10-14 14:00 — 545 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
95450Oct 2023Aug 2026Oct 2023 — avg 63 · peak 132Nov 2023 — avg 52 · peak 117Dec 2023 — avg 64 · peak 181Jan 2024 — avg 58 · peak 128Feb 2024 — avg 50 · peak 116Mar 2024 — avg 101 · peak 363Apr 2024 — avg 92 · peak 231May 2024 — avg 69 · peak 141Jun 2024 — avg 139 · peak 554Jul 2024 — avg 127 · peak 250Aug 2024 — avg 92 · peak 198Sep 2024 — avg 117 · peak 293Oct 2024 — avg 138 · peak 299Nov 2024 — avg 247 · peak 820Dec 2024 — avg 188 · peak 428Jan 2025 — avg 202 · peak 428Feb 2025 — avg 179 · peak 378Mar 2025 — avg 245 · peak 997Apr 2025 — avg 269 · peak 568May 2025 — avg 259 · peak 964Jun 2025 — avg 331 · peak 693Jul 2025 — avg 234 · peak 407Aug 2025 — avg 267 · peak 485Sep 2025 — avg 355 · peak 1,267Oct 2025 — avg 277 · peak 636Nov 2025 — avg 251 · peak 475Dec 2025 — avg 459 · peak 1,666Jan 2026 — avg 710 · peak 2,529Feb 2026 — avg 723 · peak 1,706Mar 2026 — avg 657 · peak 1,305Apr 2026 — avg 954 · peak 2,724May 2026 — avg 934 · peak 1,914Jun 2026 — avg 752 · peak 1,381Jul 2026 — avg 812 · peak 2,229Aug 2026 — avg 848 · peak 1,725
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Chart history

PositiveNegative
27272026-09-212026-10-142026-09-21: 27 new positive2026-09-21: 1 new negative2026-09-22: 15 new positive2026-09-23: 17 new positive2026-09-24: 12 new positive2026-09-25: 15 new positive2026-09-26: 19 new positive2026-09-28: 20 new positive2026-09-28: 1 new negative2026-09-29: 22 new positive2026-09-29: 1 new negative2026-09-30: 11 new positive2026-09-30: 1 new negative2026-10-01: 11 new positive2026-10-02: 15 new positive2026-10-02: 1 new negative2026-10-03: 14 new positive2026-10-04: 14 new positive2026-10-04: 1 new negative2026-10-06: 9 new positive2026-10-06: 2 new negative2026-10-07: 7 new positive2026-10-08: 22 new positive2026-10-09: 11 new positive2026-10-10: 17 new positive2026-10-11: 18 new positive2026-10-11: 1 new negative2026-10-12: 21 new positive2026-10-13: 9 new positive2026-10-13: 1 new negative2026-10-14: 13 new positive2026-10-14: 1 new negative
New Steam reviews per day (census review snapshots). Positive above the line, negative below.

Price history

$19.99$14.392023-10-162026-04-072023-10-16 — best price $14.992024-06-03 — best price $17.992024-09-16 — best price $14.392024-09-23 — best price $17.992026-04-07 — best price $19.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Twitch viewers

28302026-10-01 05:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-01 14:34 — 6 viewers2026-10-01 23:34 — 126 viewers2026-10-02 08:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-02 17:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-03 02:34 — 11 viewers2026-10-03 11:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-03 20:34 — 2 viewers2026-10-04 05:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-04 14:34 — 14 viewers2026-10-04 23:34 — 12 viewers2026-10-05 08:34 — 5 viewers2026-10-05 17:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-06 02:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-06 11:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-06 20:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-07 05:34 — 10 viewers2026-10-07 14:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-07 23:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-08 08:34 — 8 viewers2026-10-08 17:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-09 02:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-09 11:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-09 20:35 — 5 viewers2026-10-10 05:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-10 14:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-10 23:34 — 10 viewers2026-10-11 08:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-11 17:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-12 02:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-12 11:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-12 20:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-13 05:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-13 14:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-13 23:34 — 5 viewers2026-10-14 08:34 — 40 viewers2026-10-14 17:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-15 02:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-15 04:34 — 0 viewers
Hourly Twitch viewers (census snapshots).

Details

WindowsSingle-playerMulti-playerPvPOnline PvPCo-opOnline Co-opSteam WorkshopColor AlternativesCustom Volume Controls#category_playable_at_your_own_pace1 DLC

Post-launch support: 1 DLC released, first 2024-08-01 (Steam store data)

Where its players are

Share of Steam reviews by language (top languages measured) — a proxy for where the player base lives.

Player tags

JetWarActionCombatFlightSci-fiPhysicsStealthWargameMilitary

Census log

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

Recent updates

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Similarity via IGDB.

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