The Game Census
Prison Architect cover art

Prison Architect

Introversion Software · Paradox Interactive · 2015-10-06

SteamGOGPlayStation StoreEpic Games StoreXboxMicrosoft Store

IndieSimulationStrategy

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer · Perspectives: Bird view / Isometric

Releases: Jun 28, 2016 (Xbox One), Aug 20, 2018 (Nintendo Switch), Oct 06, 2015 (Linux), Oct 06, 2015 (Mac), May 25, 2017 (iOS), Oct 06, 2015 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

Only the world’s most ruthless Warden can contain the world’s most ruthless inmates. Design and develop your personalized penitentiary in Prison Architect.

Prison Architect is a 2015 Indie, Simulation and Strategy game priced at $5.99, with an estimated 5,000,000 .. 10,000,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (89% of 73793 reviews).— census verdict as of 2026-10-10

618
playing now
89%
positive of 74k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
5,000,000–10,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
0
twitch viewers (latest)
81/100
critic score (12 outlets, IGDB)
76/100
IGDB user rating (196 ratings)
16
Nexus mods (23k downloads)
4.21★
PlayStation Store rating (4,715 ratings)
80/100
opencritic · strong · 78% recommend · from 62 critics
44h
to beat · rushed 17h · completionist 68h
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$5.99
steam price (US)

618 players in-game as of 2026-10-15 02:00 UTC (census sample)

Prison Architect is a private prison construction and management simulation video game developed and published by Introversion Software. It was made available as a crowdfunded paid alpha pre-order on September 25, 2012 with updates that were scheduled every three to four weeks until 2023. With over 2,000,000 copies sold, Prison Architect made over US$10.7 million in pre-order sales for the alpha version. Prison Architect was an entrant in the 2012 Independent Games Festival. The game was available on Steam's Early Access program, and was officially released on October 6, 2015.

Trailer

Prison Architect trailer thumbnail

Prison Architect - Launch Trailer | PS4

≈443,021 YouTube results for this game's trailer search

Health check

Healthy
  • · 618 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 4,092 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~512/week).
  • · Review velocity up 206% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 1% of 50,414 Indie games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-28

Estimated sales: 1.8M–4.4M copies

Review-multiple estimate from 73,834 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

GOG$7.49-75%
Steam$7.49-75%
GOG$29.99
Microsoft Store$29.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $2.14 at AllYouPlay (2024-09-26) · bundled 15×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $29.99 · on sale 115 of 157 observed days · $5.35 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
2.8k2.8k20182026Week of 2018-03-01: 156 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 125 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 19 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 128 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 367 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 239 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 25 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 158 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 336 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 48 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 151 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 23 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 691 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 47 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 300 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 37 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 192 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 33 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 154 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 32 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 126 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 244 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 61 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 147 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 775 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 60 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 955 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 48 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 112 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 180 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 242 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 273 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 177 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 1,849 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 195 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 1,269 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 82 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 728 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 48 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 504 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 44 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 549 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 41 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 909 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 117 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 1,060 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 113 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 955 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 112 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 906 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 151 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 399 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 64 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 300 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 40 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 827 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 88 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 554 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 57 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 573 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 44 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 813 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 103 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 841 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 116 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 450 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 77 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 321 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 32 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 490 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 85 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 685 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 95 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 529 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 87 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 361 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 60 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 305 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 44 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 412 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 65 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 362 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 53 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 412 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 54 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 418 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 86 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 350 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 55 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 312 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 50 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 277 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 35 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 330 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 50 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 367 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 77 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 339 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 45 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 272 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 34 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 250 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 42 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 298 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 84 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 354 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 50 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 277 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 34 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 279 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 46 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 253 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 51 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 234 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 36 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 189 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 51 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 228 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 56 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 205 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 36 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 474 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 133 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 221 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 44 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 138 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 32 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 159 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 41 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 268 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 44 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 204 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 46 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 395 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 106 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 164 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 39 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 185 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 44 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 185 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 225 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 47 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 209 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 52 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 518 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 123 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 208 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 55 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 154 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 20 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 143 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 38 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 248 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 38 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 302 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 68 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 243 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 31 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 155 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 94 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 225 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 86 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 156 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 20 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 134 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 37 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 137 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 187 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 23 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 152 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 28 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 108 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 25 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 121 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 104 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 38 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 154 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 23 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 158 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 34 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 148 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 26 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 114 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 27 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 108 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 166 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 32 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 127 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 23 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 152 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 28 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 116 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 32 negativeWeek of 2026-09-01: 147 positiveWeek of 2026-09-01: 2,825 negativeWeek of 2026-10-01: 46 positiveWeek of 2026-10-01: 94 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1.2k4202026-09-16 04:00 — 533 players2026-09-17 11:00 — 635 players2026-09-18 19:00 — 896 players2026-09-20 02:00 — 734 players2026-09-21 10:00 — 593 players2026-09-22 17:00 — 845 players2026-09-24 01:00 — 511 players2026-09-25 08:00 — 612 players2026-09-26 16:00 — 1,025 players2026-09-27 23:00 — 682 players2026-09-29 07:00 — 420 players2026-09-30 14:00 — 751 players2026-10-01 22:00 — 651 players2026-10-03 05:00 — 634 players2026-10-04 14:00 — 1,172 players2026-10-05 21:00 — 792 players2026-10-07 05:00 — 559 players2026-10-08 12:00 — 778 players2026-10-09 20:00 — 984 players2026-10-11 03:00 — 695 players2026-10-12 11:00 — 639 players2026-10-13 18:00 — 957 players2026-10-15 02:00 — 618 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
5.2k197Mar 2013Aug 2026Mar 2013 — avg 283 · peak 642Aug 2013 — avg 797 · peak 3,844Jan 2014 — avg 878 · peak 2,709Jun 2014 — avg 1,480 · peak 6,850Nov 2014 — avg 1,055 · peak 6,051Apr 2015 — avg 1,219 · peak 2,695Sep 2015 — avg 1,187 · peak 2,411Feb 2016 — avg 1,788 · peak 3,800Jul 2016 — avg 3,956 · peak 12,053Dec 2016 — avg 1,878 · peak 4,764May 2017 — avg 1,335 · peak 2,436Oct 2017 — avg 1,381 · peak 3,327Mar 2018 — avg 1,143 · peak 2,129Aug 2018 — avg 1,466 · peak 2,545Jan 2019 — avg 1,542 · peak 3,550Jun 2019 — avg 1,284 · peak 3,314Nov 2019 — avg 2,151 · peak 7,782Apr 2020 — avg 2,116 · peak 6,316Sep 2020 — avg 1,036 · peak 1,789Feb 2021 — avg 2,721 · peak 8,733Jul 2021 — avg 1,722 · peak 3,453Dec 2021 — avg 1,178 · peak 1,917May 2022 — avg 1,326 · peak 3,277Oct 2022 — avg 1,347 · peak 2,858Mar 2023 — avg 937 · peak 1,591Aug 2023 — avg 1,076 · peak 1,802Jan 2024 — avg 1,530 · peak 2,965Jun 2024 — avg 1,235 · peak 5,451Nov 2024 — avg 1,155 · peak 2,672Apr 2025 — avg 887 · peak 1,545Sep 2025 — avg 793 · peak 1,412Feb 2026 — avg 932 · peak 1,773Jul 2026 — avg 901 · peak 1,587Aug 2026 — avg 855 · peak 1,945
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Chart history

PositiveNegative
29292026-09-222026-10-142026-09-22: 5 new positive2026-09-30: 3 new positive2026-09-30: 29 new negative2026-10-02: 7 new negative2026-10-03: 1 new positive2026-10-03: 14 new negative2026-10-04: 3 new positive2026-10-04: 22 new negative2026-10-05: 3 new positive2026-10-05: 8 new negative2026-10-06: 1 new positive2026-10-06: 15 new negative2026-10-07: 6 new positive2026-10-07: 12 new negative2026-10-08: 4 new positive2026-10-08: 6 new negative2026-10-10: 1 new positive2026-10-10: 13 new negative2026-10-12: 6 new positive2026-10-12: 13 new negative2026-10-13: 3 new positive2026-10-13: 4 new negative2026-10-14: 6 new negative
New Steam reviews per day (census review snapshots). Positive above the line, negative below.

Price history

$29.99$2.492015-01-012026-10-152015-01-01 — best price $5.992016-01-15 — best price $17.992017-05-11 — best price $7.492018-07-05 — best price $29.992019-04-16 — best price $7.492019-08-15 — best price $7.492019-11-30 — best price $6.402020-02-03 — best price $24.992020-04-15 — best price $7.492020-07-03 — best price $5.992020-09-20 — best price $29.992020-11-22 — best price $7.502021-01-19 — best price $25.382021-03-30 — best price $29.992021-06-10 — best price $29.992021-09-06 — best price $18.992021-12-13 — best price $6.762022-03-05 — best price $26.452022-05-25 — best price $18.952022-08-11 — best price $6.192022-11-16 — best price $26.452023-02-20 — best price $26.992023-06-15 — best price $29.992023-09-05 — best price $29.992024-01-22 — best price $7.502024-05-20 — best price $6.252024-09-25 — best price $2.502024-12-26 — best price $7.502025-04-14 — best price $22.492025-07-31 — best price $29.992026-01-05 — best price $22.492026-04-27 — best price $7.502026-08-26 — best price $5.992026-10-07 — best price $7.492026-10-15 — best price $7.49
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

134392026-05-29 — 71 pageviews2026-06-02 — 73 pageviews2026-06-06 — 66 pageviews2026-06-10 — 39 pageviews2026-06-14 — 63 pageviews2026-06-18 — 67 pageviews2026-06-22 — 76 pageviews2026-06-26 — 134 pageviews2026-06-30 — 60 pageviews2026-07-04 — 70 pageviews2026-07-08 — 67 pageviews2026-07-12 — 83 pageviews2026-07-16 — 56 pageviews2026-07-20 — 64 pageviews2026-07-24 — 71 pageviews2026-07-28 — 85 pageviews2026-08-01 — 51 pageviews2026-08-05 — 93 pageviews2026-08-09 — 60 pageviews2026-08-13 — 70 pageviews2026-08-17 — 58 pageviews2026-08-21 — 77 pageviews2026-08-25 — 66 pageviews2026-08-29 — 71 pageviews2026-09-02 — 76 pageviews2026-09-06 — 101 pageviews2026-09-10 — 64 pageviews2026-09-14 — 72 pageviews2026-09-18 — 79 pageviews2026-09-22 — 66 pageviews2026-09-26 — 78 pageviews2026-09-30 — 96 pageviews2026-10-04 — 97 pageviews2026-10-08 — 77 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Twitch viewers

10502026-10-01 16:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-02 01:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-02 10:34 — 2 viewers2026-10-02 19:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-03 04:34 — 3 viewers2026-10-03 13:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-03 22:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-04 07:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-04 16:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-05 01:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-05 10:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-05 19:34 — 76 viewers2026-10-06 04:34 — 3 viewers2026-10-06 13:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-06 22:34 — 2 viewers2026-10-07 07:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-07 16:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-08 01:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-08 10:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-08 19:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-09 04:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-09 13:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-09 22:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-10 07:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-10 16:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-11 01:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-11 10:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-11 19:34 — 2 viewers2026-10-12 04:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-12 13:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-12 22:34 — 15 viewers2026-10-13 07:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-13 16:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-14 01:34 — 0 viewers2026-10-14 10:34 — 2 viewers2026-10-14 19:34 — 1 viewers2026-10-15 04:34 — 10 viewers2026-10-15 13:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-15 15:34 — 0 viewers
Hourly Twitch viewers (census snapshots).

Completion

18
achievements tracked
31.8%
earned "Get Busy Living"
6.6%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSLinuxSingle-playerSteam AchievementsSteam Trading CardsSteam WorkshopSteam CloudIncludes level editorFamily Sharing12 DLC

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

Post-launch support: 12 DLC released, first 2019-11-21, latest 2023-02-07 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)41,2863%18
Windows (Xbox)4107%16
Switch (Nintendo)740%0

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

2DEconomySandboxBuildingModdableStrategyTop-DownColony SimManagementSimulation

Census log

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

Players also track

Star Control®: OriginsRimWorldSurvivalistColony SurvivalForce of NatureStartup CompanyDude SimulatorJunkyard Simulator

Similarity via IGDB.

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