The Game Census
Nuclear Option cover art

Nuclear Option

Shockfront Studios · 2023-10-15

Steam

ActionIndieSimulationEarly Access

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative

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.

737
playing now
95%
positive of 11k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
steam rating
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
0
twitch viewers (latest)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$19.99
steam price (US)

737 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 04:00 UTC (census sample)

Health check

Healthy
  • · 737 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 11% of 10,791 Action games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 210k–473k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 10,517 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

1.2k4692026-08-11 19:00 — 1,157 players2026-08-12 11:00 — 595 players2026-08-13 03:00 — 820 players2026-08-13 19:00 — 921 players2026-08-14 08:00 — 481 players2026-08-15 00:00 — 969 players2026-08-15 16:00 — 967 players2026-08-16 08:00 — 595 players2026-08-17 00:00 — 1,058 players2026-08-17 16:00 — 773 players2026-08-18 07:00 — 478 players2026-08-18 23:00 — 857 players2026-08-19 15:00 — 760 players2026-08-20 07:00 — 469 players2026-08-20 22:00 — 924 players2026-08-21 14:00 — 753 players2026-08-22 06:00 — 606 players2026-08-22 22:00 — 1,085 players2026-08-23 13:00 — 718 players2026-08-24 05:00 — 497 players2026-08-24 21:00 — 930 players2026-08-25 13:00 — 533 players2026-08-26 05:00 — 495 players2026-08-26 21:00 — 842 players2026-08-27 13:00 — 580 players2026-08-28 05:00 — 494 players2026-08-28 21:00 — 943 players2026-08-29 12:00 — 686 players2026-08-30 04:00 — 737 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

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

26802026-08-26 19:15 — 0 viewers2026-08-26 21:34 — 5 viewers2026-08-27 01:34 — 15 viewers2026-08-27 04:34 — 76 viewers2026-08-27 07:33 — 52 viewers2026-08-27 10:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-27 13:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-27 16:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-27 19:34 — 6 viewers2026-08-27 23:34 — 1 viewers2026-08-28 02:34 — 4 viewers2026-08-28 05:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-28 08:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-28 11:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-28 14:34 — 65 viewers2026-08-28 17:34 — 9 viewers2026-08-28 20:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-28 23:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-29 02:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-29 05:34 — 2 viewers2026-08-29 08:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-29 11:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-29 14:34 — 229 viewers2026-08-29 17:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-29 20:34 — 9 viewers2026-08-29 23:34 — 1 viewers2026-08-30 02:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-30 05:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-30 08:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-30 11:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-30 14:34 — 0 viewers2026-08-30 16:35 — 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

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

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

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