The Game Census
Populous™ cover art

Populous™

Bullfrog Productions · Electronic Arts · 2024-03-07

SteamGOGEpic Games StoreMicrosoft Store

RPGStrategy

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer

Releases: Sep 01, 2011 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Mar 23, 1990 (Sharp X68000), 1992 (Acorn Archimedes), 1989 (Atari ST/STE), Jun 05, 1989 (DOS), Mar 16, 1990 (PC-9800 Series)

Move mountains, part the seas, and lead mortal armies to victory in Populous. Take on the powers of a mighty deity and battle for supremacy against an enemy god, using thoughtful strategy to shape the isometric world and the fate of its people.

2
playing now
85%
positive of 65 reviews
Very Positive
steam rating
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
74/100
IGDB user rating (47 ratings)
8h
to beat · rushed 2h · completionist 26h
bronze
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$4.99
steam price (US)

2 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 06:00 UTC (census sample)

Populous is a video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts for the Amiga in March 1989, then quickly the Atari ST and MS-DOS. Many conversions followed, including for the Genesis, Super NES, and PC Engine consoles. Populous is considered the first god game. With over four million copies sold, Populous is one of the best-selling PC games of all time.

Health check

Insufficient data
  • · Not enough review history collected yet to judge health.
  • · Top 78% of 6,228 RPG games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 1.3k–2.9k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 65 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

Microsoft Store$0.00
GOG$2.39-60%
lowest across shops (ITAD)$2.39-60%

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $0.89 at GOG (2018-06-04) · bundled 1×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $5.99 · on sale 48 of 62 observed days · at its all-time low (census price snapshots)

Players online

402026-08-11 19:00 — 1 players2026-08-12 11:00 — 1 players2026-08-13 03:00 — 3 players2026-08-13 19:00 — 2 players2026-08-14 10:00 — 1 players2026-08-15 02:00 — 4 players2026-08-15 18:00 — 1 players2026-08-16 10:00 — 1 players2026-08-17 02:00 — 1 players2026-08-17 18:00 — 3 players2026-08-18 10:00 — 3 players2026-08-19 01:00 — 3 players2026-08-19 17:00 — 4 players2026-08-20 09:00 — 3 players2026-08-21 01:00 — 1 players2026-08-21 16:00 — 2 players2026-08-22 08:00 — 1 players2026-08-23 00:00 — 0 players2026-08-23 16:00 — 3 players2026-08-24 07:00 — 1 players2026-08-24 23:00 — 1 players2026-08-25 15:00 — 1 players2026-08-26 07:00 — 0 players2026-08-26 22:00 — 1 players2026-08-27 14:00 — 3 players2026-08-28 06:00 — 3 players2026-08-28 22:00 — 4 players2026-08-29 14:00 — 1 players2026-08-30 06:00 — 2 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$5.99$0.992015-01-012026-08-302015-01-01 — best price $4.992015-06-19 — best price $2.392015-12-01 — best price $4.992016-06-22 — best price $5.992017-05-15 — best price $5.992018-01-16 — best price $5.992018-09-21 — best price $1.192019-02-26 — best price $5.992019-09-09 — best price $5.992020-01-31 — best price $5.992020-11-10 — best price $4.992021-01-18 — best price $5.992021-05-31 — best price $5.992022-01-05 — best price $5.992022-04-04 — best price $5.992022-09-06 — best price $5.992023-01-03 — best price $5.992023-09-12 — best price $5.992024-01-25 — best price $1.492024-04-29 — best price $1.992024-08-26 — best price $2.512024-11-11 — best price $4.992025-01-03 — best price $5.992025-02-24 — best price $4.992025-04-25 — best price $5.992025-07-03 — best price $4.992025-08-26 — best price $2.992025-10-28 — best price $2.992025-12-18 — best price $2.492026-02-03 — best price $2.492026-03-19 — best price $3.002026-05-08 — best price $1.792026-06-17 — best price $1.192026-08-17 — best price $5.992026-08-30 — best price $2.39
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

5751262026-05-28 — 166 pageviews2026-05-31 — 205 pageviews2026-06-03 — 162 pageviews2026-06-06 — 157 pageviews2026-06-09 — 154 pageviews2026-06-12 — 166 pageviews2026-06-15 — 195 pageviews2026-06-18 — 149 pageviews2026-06-21 — 197 pageviews2026-06-24 — 163 pageviews2026-06-27 — 153 pageviews2026-06-30 — 167 pageviews2026-07-03 — 186 pageviews2026-07-06 — 163 pageviews2026-07-09 — 166 pageviews2026-07-12 — 178 pageviews2026-07-15 — 146 pageviews2026-07-18 — 157 pageviews2026-07-21 — 147 pageviews2026-07-24 — 168 pageviews2026-07-27 — 223 pageviews2026-07-30 — 140 pageviews2026-08-02 — 142 pageviews2026-08-05 — 189 pageviews2026-08-08 — 142 pageviews2026-08-11 — 169 pageviews2026-08-14 — 134 pageviews2026-08-17 — 159 pageviews2026-08-20 — 167 pageviews2026-08-23 — 188 pageviews2026-08-25 — 194 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Details

WindowsSingle-playerMulti-playerPvPLAN PvPShared/Split Screen PvPShared/Split ScreenSteam CloudRemote Play TogetherFamily Sharing

Player tags

RPGGod GameStrategyIsometricStrategy RPG

Census log

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

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

Wikipedia ↗Official site ↗