The Game Census
Return to Zork cover art

Return to Zork

Activision · 2017-04-18

SteamGOG

Adventure

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Side view

Releases: Sep 15, 1993 (DOS), Feb 02, 1996 (Sega Saturn), May 27, 1995 (PC-FX), Sep 27, 1996 (PlayStation), Feb 01, 2011 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Sep 15, 1993 (Mac)

Return to Zork: A mesmerizing interactive adventure of danger, intrigue and cunning.

Return to Zork is an Adventure game released in 2017, priced at $5.99, with an estimated 20,000 .. 50,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (89% of 70 reviews).

0
playing now
89%
positive of 70 reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
20,000–50,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
66/100
IGDB user rating (10 ratings)
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$5.99
steam price (US)

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

Return to Zork is a 1993 adventure game developed by Activision. The game was the last to be published by Infocom for the Zork series, and was the first to use a point-and-click interface, rather than text-based interaction as in previous games. The game followed the release of Zork Zero in 1988.

Health check

Quiet
  • · 0 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 9 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~1/week).
  • · Review velocity down 10% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 47% of 28,838 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-09-02

Estimated sales: 1.8k–4.2k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 70 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

GOG$5.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $1.97 at GOG (2016-08-19)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $5.99 · on sale 37 of 70 observed days · $4.02 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
3320172026Week of 2017-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2017-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

102026-09-15 09:00 — 0 players2026-09-16 17:00 — 1 players2026-09-18 01:00 — 0 players2026-09-19 09:00 — 0 players2026-09-20 16:00 — 0 players2026-09-22 00:00 — 0 players2026-09-23 07:00 — 0 players2026-09-24 15:00 — 1 players2026-09-25 22:00 — 0 players2026-09-27 06:00 — 0 players2026-09-28 13:00 — 0 players2026-09-29 21:00 — 0 players2026-10-01 04:00 — 0 players2026-10-02 12:00 — 0 players2026-10-03 20:00 — 0 players2026-10-05 04:00 — 0 players2026-10-06 11:00 — 0 players2026-10-07 19:00 — 0 players2026-10-09 02:00 — 0 players2026-10-10 10:00 — 0 players2026-10-11 17:00 — 0 players2026-10-13 01:00 — 1 players2026-10-14 09:00 — 0 players2026-10-15 00:00 — 0 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
20Apr 2017Feb 2025Apr 2017 — avg 1 · peak 3Jun 2017 — avg 0 · peak 3Aug 2017 — avg 0 · peak 3Oct 2017 — avg 0 · peak 2Dec 2017 — avg 0 · peak 3Feb 2018 — avg 0 · peak 4Apr 2018 — avg 0 · peak 3Jun 2018 — avg 0 · peak 4Aug 2018 — avg 0 · peak 3Oct 2018 — avg 1 · peak 3Dec 2018 — avg 1 · peak 5Feb 2019 — avg 0 · peak 3Apr 2019 — avg 0 · peak 3Jun 2019 — avg 0 · peak 3Aug 2019 — avg 0 · peak 3Oct 2019 — avg 1 · peak 3Dec 2019 — avg 1 · peak 3Feb 2020 — avg 1 · peak 3Apr 2020 — avg 1 · peak 3Jun 2020 — avg 1 · peak 5Aug 2020 — avg 1 · peak 3Oct 2020 — avg 2 · peak 5Dec 2020 — avg 2 · peak 5Feb 2021 — avg 1 · peak 5Apr 2021 — avg 1 · peak 2Jul 2021 — avg 1 · peak 4Feb 2022 — avg 2 · peak 4Aug 2022 — avg 1 · peak 3Oct 2022 — avg 2 · peak 6Dec 2022 — avg 1 · peak 4May 2023 — avg 1 · peak 3Jan 2024 — avg 1 · peak 2Feb 2025 — avg 1 · peak 3

No change (0) in avg players vs prior month — Feb 2025

Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$5.99$1.972015-01-012026-10-152015-01-01 — best price $5.992016-08-23 — best price $5.992017-06-21 — best price $5.992018-01-04 — best price $5.992018-07-05 — best price $5.992019-01-03 — best price $5.992019-05-27 — best price $5.992019-11-11 — best price $5.992020-01-24 — best price $1.992020-05-15 — best price $3.892020-08-24 — best price $1.992020-12-01 — best price $5.992021-03-22 — best price $1.972021-07-26 — best price $3.892021-11-29 — best price $5.992022-02-14 — best price $1.972022-06-28 — best price $5.992022-10-09 — best price $1.972022-12-22 — best price $3.892023-03-23 — best price $5.992023-07-25 — best price $1.972023-11-15 — best price $3.892024-02-06 — best price $3.892024-05-02 — best price $5.992024-09-17 — best price $3.892024-12-20 — best price $3.892025-03-19 — best price $1.972025-06-27 — best price $3.892025-10-08 — best price $5.992026-01-23 — best price $1.972026-06-17 — best price $1.992026-09-05 — best price $1.992026-09-15 — best price $5.992026-09-25 — best price $1.992026-10-05 — best price $1.992026-10-15 — best price $5.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

128272026-06-01 — 39 pageviews2026-06-05 — 35 pageviews2026-06-09 — 41 pageviews2026-06-13 — 53 pageviews2026-06-17 — 49 pageviews2026-06-21 — 128 pageviews2026-06-25 — 42 pageviews2026-06-29 — 59 pageviews2026-07-03 — 47 pageviews2026-07-07 — 50 pageviews2026-07-11 — 27 pageviews2026-07-15 — 50 pageviews2026-07-19 — 44 pageviews2026-07-23 — 47 pageviews2026-07-27 — 60 pageviews2026-07-31 — 30 pageviews2026-08-04 — 55 pageviews2026-08-08 — 39 pageviews2026-08-12 — 52 pageviews2026-08-16 — 47 pageviews2026-08-20 — 61 pageviews2026-08-24 — 45 pageviews2026-08-28 — 41 pageviews2026-09-01 — 48 pageviews2026-09-05 — 56 pageviews2026-09-09 — 43 pageviews2026-09-13 — 36 pageviews2026-09-17 — 40 pageviews2026-09-21 — 44 pageviews2026-09-25 — 42 pageviews2026-09-29 — 50 pageviews2026-10-03 — 54 pageviews2026-10-07 — 58 pageviews2026-10-11 — 51 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Details

WindowsSingle-playerFamily Sharing

Player tags

FMVPuzzleClassicAdventurePoint & Click

Census log

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

Players also track

Anna's QuestRusty Lake HotelPLANET ALPHAUnforeseen IncidentsRusty Lake: RootsForgotton AnneGibbous - A Cthulhu AdventureBlacksad: Under the Skin

Similarity via IGDB.

Wikipedia ↗