The Game Census
Papers, Please cover art

Papers, Please

Lucas Pope · 3909 · 2013-08-08

SteamGOG

AdventureIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: First person, Text

Releases: Aug 05, 2022 (Android), Dec 12, 2014 (iOS), Aug 08, 2013 (Mac), Dec 12, 2017 (PlayStation Vita), Feb 12, 2014 (Linux), Aug 08, 2013 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

Congratulations. The October labor lottery is complete. Your name was pulled. For immediate placement, report to the Ministry of Admission at Grestin Border Checkpoint. An apartment will be provided for you and your family in East Grestin. Expect a Class-8 dwelling.

Papers, Please is an Adventure and Indie game released in 2013, priced at $9.99, with an estimated 2,000,000 .. 5,000,000 owners and an Overwhelmingly Positive review sentiment (97% of 80,511 reviews).

204
playing now
97%
positive of 81k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
steam's rating (official)
2,000,000–5,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
82/100
critic score (5 outlets, IGDB)
82/100
IGDB user rating (724 ratings)
5
Nexus mods (748 downloads)
6.2h
to beat · rushed 4h · completionist 32h
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Verified
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$9.99
steam price (US)

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

Papers, Please is a 2013 puzzle simulation video game by Lucas Pope, developed and published independently through his production company 3909 LLC. The game was released on August 8, 2013, for Microsoft Windows and OS X, for Linux on February 12, 2014, and for iOS on December 12, 2014. A port for the PlayStation Vita was announced in August 2014 and was then released on December 12, 2017. A port for Android, alongside an updated port for iOS, was released in August 2022.

Trailer

Papers, Please trailer thumbnail

Papers, Please - Trailer

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

Health check

Healthy
  • · 204 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 3,376 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~422/week).
  • · Review velocity down 23% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 1% of 28,748 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-30

Estimated sales: 3.2M–6.5M copies

Review-multiple estimate from 80,738 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

GOG$9.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $1.99 at Steam (2018-01-15) · bundled 1×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $9.99 · on sale 6 of 58 observed days · $8.00 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
1.8k1.8k20182026Week of 2018-03-01: 361 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 193 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 191 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 237 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 328 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 197 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 157 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 110 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 566 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 219 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 217 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 153 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 154 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 126 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 171 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 1,274 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 1,755 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 35 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 140 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 131 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 138 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 528 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 743 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 599 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 441 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 556 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 512 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 535 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 976 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 27 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 829 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 748 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 499 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 528 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 648 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 716 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 759 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 19 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 627 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 635 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 19 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 572 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 1,179 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 761 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 941 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 1,229 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 37 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 536 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 439 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 559 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 752 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 806 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 519 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 547 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 674 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 20 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 568 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 698 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 810 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 654 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 517 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 456 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 572 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 831 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 1,038 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 1,372 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 43 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 823 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 20 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 710 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 20 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 556 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 565 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 712 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 1,683 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 50 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 729 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 629 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 593 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 683 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 786 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 19 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 533 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 652 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 618 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 599 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 586 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 896 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 554 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 397 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 418 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 549 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 659 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 651 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 425 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 489 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 388 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 437 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 511 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 678 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 488 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 331 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 323 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 812 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 32 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 515 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 603 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 392 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 368 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 336 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 357 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 368 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 612 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 517 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2026-09-01: 327 positiveWeek of 2026-09-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2026-10-01: 98 positiveWeek of 2026-10-01: 3 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

4791622026-09-15 11:00 — 245 players2026-09-16 20:00 — 412 players2026-09-18 03:00 — 230 players2026-09-19 11:00 — 265 players2026-09-20 18:00 — 479 players2026-09-22 02:00 — 300 players2026-09-23 09:00 — 214 players2026-09-24 17:00 — 365 players2026-09-26 00:00 — 244 players2026-09-27 08:00 — 246 players2026-09-28 15:00 — 308 players2026-09-29 23:00 — 247 players2026-10-01 06:00 — 162 players2026-10-02 14:00 — 296 players2026-10-03 22:00 — 378 players2026-10-05 06:00 — 183 players2026-10-06 13:00 — 265 players2026-10-07 21:00 — 273 players2026-10-09 04:00 — 193 players2026-10-10 12:00 — 266 players2026-10-11 19:00 — 454 players2026-10-13 03:00 — 251 players2026-10-14 10:00 — 204 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
948122Aug 2013Aug 2026Aug 2013 — avg 937 · peak 2,875Dec 2013 — avg 641 · peak 2,909Apr 2014 — avg 176 · peak 367Aug 2014 — avg 313 · peak 1,623Dec 2014 — avg 468 · peak 1,850Apr 2015 — avg 122 · peak 239Aug 2015 — avg 135 · peak 227Dec 2015 — avg 393 · peak 1,580Apr 2016 — avg 194 · peak 429Aug 2016 — avg 263 · peak 444Dec 2016 — avg 364 · peak 1,698Apr 2017 — avg 212 · peak 358Aug 2017 — avg 215 · peak 402Dec 2017 — avg 290 · peak 681Apr 2018 — avg 248 · peak 462Aug 2018 — avg 339 · peak 634Dec 2018 — avg 278 · peak 809Apr 2019 — avg 201 · peak 384Aug 2019 — avg 262 · peak 465Dec 2019 — avg 325 · peak 764Apr 2020 — avg 277 · peak 409Aug 2020 — avg 355 · peak 781Dec 2020 — avg 320 · peak 750Apr 2021 — avg 366 · peak 951Aug 2021 — avg 608 · peak 2,338Dec 2021 — avg 381 · peak 969Apr 2022 — avg 422 · peak 1,012Aug 2022 — avg 378 · peak 622Dec 2022 — avg 530 · peak 1,298Apr 2023 — avg 388 · peak 705Aug 2023 — avg 948 · peak 4,154Dec 2023 — avg 415 · peak 1,012Apr 2024 — avg 486 · peak 946Aug 2024 — avg 346 · peak 584Dec 2024 — avg 439 · peak 967Apr 2025 — avg 316 · peak 552Aug 2025 — avg 364 · peak 627Dec 2025 — avg 411 · peak 844Apr 2026 — avg 261 · peak 449Aug 2026 — avg 448 · peak 1,052
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Chart history

PositiveNegative
18182026-09-232026-10-142026-09-23: 6 new positive2026-09-23: 2 new negative2026-09-26: 13 new positive2026-09-29: 8 new positive2026-09-30: 10 new positive2026-10-03: 17 new positive2026-10-03: 1 new negative2026-10-05: 14 new positive2026-10-05: 2 new negative2026-10-09: 12 new positive2026-10-11: 18 new positive2026-10-13: 10 new positive2026-10-14: 7 new positive
New Steam reviews per day (census review snapshots). Positive above the line, negative below.

Price history

$9.99$1.992015-01-012026-10-142015-01-01 — best price $4.992015-05-22 — best price $3.992015-06-14 — best price $2.992015-09-11 — best price $9.992015-12-05 — best price $9.992016-01-25 — best price $9.992016-06-22 — best price $9.992016-11-14 — best price $9.992017-02-05 — best price $9.992017-07-24 — best price $4.992018-02-14 — best price $3.992018-06-21 — best price $4.992018-12-20 — best price $4.992019-03-28 — best price $9.992019-07-09 — best price $9.992020-06-25 — best price $4.992020-12-16 — best price $4.992021-07-08 — best price $9.992021-12-20 — best price $4.992022-06-23 — best price $4.992023-01-05 — best price $9.992023-08-12 — best price $9.992024-09-28 — best price $9.992025-07-22 — best price $4.992026-06-17 — best price $4.992026-09-01 — best price $9.992026-09-09 — best price $9.992026-09-17 — best price $9.992026-09-25 — best price $9.992026-10-03 — best price $9.992026-10-11 — best price $9.992026-10-14 — best price $9.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

6633772026-06-01 — 663 pageviews2026-06-05 — 529 pageviews2026-06-09 — 490 pageviews2026-06-13 — 485 pageviews2026-06-17 — 524 pageviews2026-06-21 — 532 pageviews2026-06-25 — 587 pageviews2026-06-29 — 579 pageviews2026-07-03 — 495 pageviews2026-07-07 — 573 pageviews2026-07-11 — 449 pageviews2026-07-15 — 496 pageviews2026-07-19 — 526 pageviews2026-07-23 — 544 pageviews2026-07-27 — 520 pageviews2026-07-31 — 410 pageviews2026-08-04 — 482 pageviews2026-08-08 — 470 pageviews2026-08-12 — 489 pageviews2026-08-16 — 557 pageviews2026-08-20 — 468 pageviews2026-08-24 — 448 pageviews2026-08-28 — 505 pageviews2026-09-01 — 486 pageviews2026-09-05 — 434 pageviews2026-09-09 — 502 pageviews2026-09-13 — 428 pageviews2026-09-17 — 479 pageviews2026-09-21 — 474 pageviews2026-09-25 — 630 pageviews2026-09-29 — 430 pageviews2026-10-03 — 377 pageviews2026-10-07 — 439 pageviews2026-10-11 — 453 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Twitch viewers

24502026-09-30 22:34 — 19 viewers2026-10-01 02:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-01 06:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-02 02:34 — 22 viewers2026-10-02 06:34 — 5 viewers2026-10-02 10:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-02 14:34 — 7 viewers2026-10-04 00:34 — 8 viewers2026-10-04 04:34 — 7 viewers2026-10-04 08:34 — 6 viewers2026-10-04 12:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-05 23:34 — 5 viewers2026-10-06 03:34 — 5 viewers2026-10-06 07:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-06 11:34 — 20 viewers2026-10-07 21:34 — 245 viewers2026-10-08 01:34 — 56 viewers2026-10-08 05:34 — 22 viewers2026-10-08 09:34 — 24 viewers2026-10-09 20:35 — 2 viewers2026-10-10 00:34 — 20 viewers2026-10-10 04:34 — 15 viewers2026-10-10 08:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-11 20:35 — 0 viewers2026-10-12 00:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-12 04:34 — 16 viewers2026-10-12 08:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-13 04:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-13 08:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-13 12:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-13 16:34 — 7 viewers2026-10-13 20:34 — 23 viewers2026-10-14 00:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-14 04:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-14 08:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-14 10:34 — 10 viewers
Hourly Twitch viewers (census snapshots).

Completion

13
achievements tracked
57.5%
earned "Obristan Token"
15%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSLinuxSingle-playerSteam AchievementsSteam Trading CardsSteam CloudStatsSteam LeaderboardsRemote Play on PhoneRemote Play on TabletFamily Sharing

15 supported languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Simplified Chinese…

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)70,91010%13
PS Vita (PlayStation)3,33332%13

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

2DIndieRetroPuzzleAddictivePoliticalDystopian SimulationStory RichAtmospheric

Census log

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

Players also track

Rise of VeniceImagine EarthUnclaimed WorldZigguratJudgment: Apocalypse Survival SimulationAnother Brick in The MallRusty Lake: RootsMashinky

Similarity via IGDB.

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