The Game Census
Returnal™ cover art

Returnal™

Housemarque · PlayStation Publishing LLC · 2023-02-15

SteamPlayStation StoreEpic Games StoreAmazon

Action

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative

Releases: Feb 15, 2023 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Apr 30, 2021 (PlayStation 5)

BREAK THE CYCLE Fight to survive as this award-winning third-person shooter brings Selene’s story to PC. Take on roguelike challenges. Engage enemies in bullet hell-fuelled clashes. Share your journey through Returnal™ with another player.

134
playing now
81%
positive of 11k reviews
Very Positive
steam rating
500,000–1,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
90/100
critic score (19 outlets, IGDB)
83/100
IGDB user rating (190 ratings)
32h
to beat · rushed 11h
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$59.99
steam price (US)

134 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 02:00 UTC (census sample)

Returnal is a 2021 third-person shooter game developed by Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 5. A port to Windows developed by Climax Studios was released on 15 February 2023. It follows Selene Vassos, an astronaut who lands on the planet Atropos in search of the mysterious "White Shadow" signal and finds herself trapped in a time loop. The gameplay combines bullet hell, third-person shooter and roguelike elements.

Health check

Healthy
  • · 134 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 1,201 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~150/week).
  • · Review velocity up 93% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 11% of 10,791 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-28

Estimated sales: 221k–496k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 11,026 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

lowest across shops (ITAD)$48.99-18%

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $17.39 at GameBillet (2026-06-26)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $59.99 · on sale 45 of 65 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
1.5k1.5k20232026Week of 2023-02-01: 1,509 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 405 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 376 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 93 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 164 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 33 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 115 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 92 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 38 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 123 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 41 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 63 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 70 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 18 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 193 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 19 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 90 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 79 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 61 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 20 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 87 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 30 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 46 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 13 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 100 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 50 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 51 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 71 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 46 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 92 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 30 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 56 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 91 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 32 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 89 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 52 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 93 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 28 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 65 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 60 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 49 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 66 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 21 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 75 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 24 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 97 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 40 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 138 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 51 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 91 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 23 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 95 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 34 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 90 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 27 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 58 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 17 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 81 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 211 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 92 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 124 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 54 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 59 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 14 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

234572026-08-06 22:00 — 150 players2026-08-07 06:00 — 62 players2026-08-07 14:00 — 126 players2026-08-07 22:00 — 154 players2026-08-08 06:00 — 89 players2026-08-08 14:00 — 164 players2026-08-08 22:00 — 176 players2026-08-09 06:00 — 93 players2026-08-09 14:00 — 193 players2026-08-09 22:00 — 213 players2026-08-10 06:00 — 89 players2026-08-10 15:00 — 126 players2026-08-10 23:00 — 132 players2026-08-11 07:00 — 71 players2026-08-11 15:00 — 120 players2026-08-12 22:00 — 118 players2026-08-14 06:00 — 61 players2026-08-15 14:00 — 155 players2026-08-16 22:00 — 214 players2026-08-18 05:00 — 63 players2026-08-19 13:00 — 109 players2026-08-20 20:00 — 164 players2026-08-22 04:00 — 110 players2026-08-23 11:00 — 130 players2026-08-24 19:00 — 196 players2026-08-26 03:00 — 127 players2026-08-27 11:00 — 73 players2026-08-28 18:00 — 136 players2026-08-30 02:00 — 134 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$99.99$15.482023-01-162026-08-242023-01-16 — best price $99.992023-02-01 — best price $51.682023-02-20 — best price $49.492023-03-08 — best price $52.792023-04-01 — best price $59.992023-06-20 — best price $40.752023-07-05 — best price $39.742023-07-26 — best price $47.992023-09-08 — best price $42.692023-11-03 — best price $50.972023-12-13 — best price $40.192024-01-10 — best price $47.952024-02-12 — best price $44.992024-04-03 — best price $56.992024-04-25 — best price $55.302024-06-04 — best price $55.302024-07-11 — best price $35.992024-08-12 — best price $59.992024-09-14 — best price $35.992024-11-04 — best price $59.992024-12-05 — best price $59.992025-01-03 — best price $59.992025-03-19 — best price $54.992025-04-24 — best price $30.002025-05-30 — best price $29.952025-07-11 — best price $59.992025-09-29 — best price $22.992025-11-19 — best price $59.992025-12-11 — best price $23.992026-02-11 — best price $21.492026-03-24 — best price $23.792026-06-08 — best price $15.482026-06-26 — best price $17.392026-08-07 — best price $55.692026-08-24 — best price $48.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

7482102026-05-30 — 441 pageviews2026-06-02 — 491 pageviews2026-06-05 — 439 pageviews2026-06-08 — 644 pageviews2026-06-11 — 512 pageviews2026-06-14 — 527 pageviews2026-06-17 — 539 pageviews2026-06-20 — 368 pageviews2026-06-23 — 364 pageviews2026-06-26 — 376 pageviews2026-06-29 — 375 pageviews2026-07-02 — 368 pageviews2026-07-05 — 346 pageviews2026-07-08 — 369 pageviews2026-07-11 — 284 pageviews2026-07-14 — 303 pageviews2026-07-17 — 303 pageviews2026-07-20 — 324 pageviews2026-07-23 — 263 pageviews2026-07-26 — 315 pageviews2026-07-29 — 293 pageviews2026-08-01 — 321 pageviews2026-08-04 — 267 pageviews2026-08-07 — 249 pageviews2026-08-10 — 278 pageviews2026-08-13 — 293 pageviews2026-08-16 — 304 pageviews2026-08-19 — 255 pageviews2026-08-22 — 324 pageviews2026-08-25 — 294 pageviews2026-08-27 — 210 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

38
achievements tracked
93.7%
earned "Eternal Return"
25.6%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsFull controller supportSingle-playerMulti-playerCo-opOnline Co-opSteam AchievementsFull controller supportAdjustable Text SizeCamera ComfortColor AlternativesCustom Volume Controls

22 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian…

Player tags

Co-opSpaceActionSci-fiShooterDifficultRogue-likeRogue-liteBullet HellMultiplayer

Census log

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

Recent updates

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Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Wikipedia ↗Reddit ↗