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 · Perspectives: First person, Third person

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.

Returnal™ is an Action game released in 2023, priced at $59.99, with an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (81% of 11,088 reviews).

63
playing now
81%
positive of 11k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
500,000–1,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
90/100
critic score (19 outlets, IGDB)
83/100
IGDB user rating (190 ratings)
82
Nexus mods (136k downloads)
4.37★
PlayStation Store rating (27,021 ratings)
32h
to beat · rushed 11h
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$59.99
steam price (US)

63 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 11:00 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.

Trailer

Returnal™ trailer thumbnail

Returnal - Announcement Trailer | PS5

≈68,279 YouTube results for this game's trailer search

Health check

Healthy
  • · 63 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 5% of 27,530 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-28

Estimated sales: 222k–499k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 11,088 total reviews — how this is computed.

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

12-month high $59.99 · on sale 40 of 58 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

228322026-09-14 21:00 — 126 players2026-09-16 05:00 — 51 players2026-09-17 12:00 — 55 players2026-09-18 20:00 — 114 players2026-09-20 03:00 — 102 players2026-09-21 11:00 — 75 players2026-09-22 19:00 — 126 players2026-09-24 02:00 — 86 players2026-09-25 10:00 — 61 players2026-09-26 17:00 — 135 players2026-09-28 01:00 — 82 players2026-09-29 08:00 — 36 players2026-09-30 16:00 — 76 players2026-10-01 23:00 — 83 players2026-10-03 07:00 — 97 players2026-10-04 15:00 — 213 players2026-10-05 22:00 — 141 players2026-10-07 06:00 — 63 players2026-10-08 13:00 — 124 players2026-10-09 21:00 — 168 players2026-10-11 04:00 — 113 players2026-10-12 12:00 — 80 players2026-10-13 20:00 — 144 players2026-10-14 11:00 — 63 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
3.0k72Feb 2023Aug 2026Feb 2023 — avg 3,039 · peak 6,643Apr 2023 — avg 289 · peak 688Jun 2023 — avg 167 · peak 533Aug 2023 — avg 107 · peak 245Oct 2023 — avg 93 · peak 348Dec 2023 — avg 161 · peak 413Feb 2024 — avg 131 · peak 349Apr 2024 — avg 100 · peak 217Jun 2024 — avg 90 · peak 276Aug 2024 — avg 81 · peak 181Oct 2024 — avg 83 · peak 193Dec 2024 — avg 165 · peak 400Feb 2025 — avg 119 · peak 272Apr 2025 — avg 144 · peak 365Jun 2025 — avg 92 · peak 313Aug 2025 — avg 90 · peak 195Oct 2025 — avg 111 · peak 305Dec 2025 — avg 241 · peak 503Feb 2026 — avg 205 · peak 530Apr 2026 — avg 181 · peak 425Jun 2026 — avg 399 · peak 1,373Aug 2026 — avg 122 · peak 262
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$99.99$15.482023-01-162026-09-072023-01-16 — 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 $55.692026-09-07 — best price $19.79
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

7482302026-05-30 — 441 pageviews2026-06-03 — 538 pageviews2026-06-07 — 469 pageviews2026-06-11 — 512 pageviews2026-06-15 — 440 pageviews2026-06-19 — 405 pageviews2026-06-23 — 364 pageviews2026-06-27 — 378 pageviews2026-07-01 — 356 pageviews2026-07-05 — 346 pageviews2026-07-09 — 316 pageviews2026-07-13 — 391 pageviews2026-07-17 — 303 pageviews2026-07-21 — 289 pageviews2026-07-25 — 256 pageviews2026-07-29 — 293 pageviews2026-08-02 — 304 pageviews2026-08-06 — 265 pageviews2026-08-10 — 278 pageviews2026-08-14 — 258 pageviews2026-08-18 — 259 pageviews2026-08-22 — 324 pageviews2026-08-26 — 265 pageviews2026-08-30 — 286 pageviews2026-09-03 — 322 pageviews2026-09-07 — 313 pageviews2026-09-11 — 340 pageviews2026-09-15 — 363 pageviews2026-09-19 — 308 pageviews2026-09-23 — 272 pageviews2026-09-27 — 313 pageviews2026-10-01 — 462 pageviews2026-10-05 — 287 pageviews2026-10-08 — 278 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…

Where its players are

Share of Steam reviews by language (top languages measured) — a proxy for where the player base lives.

Player tags

Co-opSpaceActionSci-fiShooterDifficultRogue-likeRogue-liteBullet HellMultiplayer

Census log

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

Recent updates

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Wikipedia ↗Reddit ↗