The Game Census
Sanctum cover art

Sanctum

Coffee Stain Studios · Coffee Stain Publishing · 2011-04-15

Steam

ActionCasualIndieStrategy

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative · Perspectives: First person

Releases: Aug 13, 2012 (Mac), Apr 15, 2011 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

You think Tower Defense games are all about building? You thought wrong. Sanctum is not your average Tower Defense title. When the havoc starts, you get to join the fray! As one of the world’s first First Person Shooter - Tower Defense games, Sanctum has taken the best of both worlds to deliver an epic, one-of-a-kind experience.

Sanctum is an Action, Casual, Indie, Strategy game released in 2011, priced at $1.99, with an estimated 1,000,000 .. 2,000,000 owners and Very Positive (89% of 3359 reviews).

0
playing now
89%
positive of 3.4k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
1,000,000–2,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
70/100
critic score (1 outlets, IGDB)
60/100
IGDB user rating (32 ratings)
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$1.99
steam price (US)

0 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 11:00 UTC (census sample)

Sanctum is a first-person shooter tower defense video game, developed by independent developer Coffee Stain Studios. It was released on Steam for Microsoft Windows on 15 April 2011. The successor, Sanctum 2, was announced in 2012 and released in May 2013.

Trailer

Sanctum trailer thumbnail

Sanctum - Trailer

≈1,000,000 YouTube results for this game's trailer search

Health check

Quiet
  • · 0 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 17 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~2/week).
  • · Review velocity down 47% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 8% of 27,727 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-30

Estimated sales: 135k–269k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 3,363 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

GamersGate$2.00-80%

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $0.75 at GamersGate (2024-01-09) · bundled 6×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $9.99 · on sale 52 of 70 observed days · $1.25 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
131320172026Week of 2017-12-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2017-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2018-01-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2018-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-02-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 1 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1302026-09-15 12:00 — 1 players2026-09-16 20:00 — 5 players2026-09-18 04:00 — 2 players2026-09-19 11:00 — 1 players2026-09-20 19:00 — 6 players2026-09-22 02:00 — 3 players2026-09-23 10:00 — 0 players2026-09-24 17:00 — 3 players2026-09-26 01:00 — 1 players2026-09-27 08:00 — 4 players2026-09-28 16:00 — 4 players2026-09-29 23:00 — 3 players2026-10-01 07:00 — 2 players2026-10-02 14:00 — 4 players2026-10-03 22:00 — 13 players2026-10-05 06:00 — 3 players2026-10-06 14:00 — 4 players2026-10-07 21:00 — 2 players2026-10-09 05:00 — 5 players2026-10-10 12:00 — 3 players2026-10-11 20:00 — 7 players2026-10-13 03:00 — 2 players2026-10-14 11:00 — 0 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
4234Jul 2012Aug 2026Jul 2012 — avg 294 · peak 1,324Dec 2012 — avg 70 · peak 183May 2013 — avg 364 · peak 3,363Oct 2013 — avg 33 · peak 156Mar 2014 — avg 97 · peak 509Aug 2014 — avg 39 · peak 145Jan 2015 — avg 28 · peak 80Jun 2015 — avg 21 · peak 56Nov 2015 — avg 19 · peak 56Apr 2016 — avg 17 · peak 52Sep 2016 — avg 13 · peak 37Feb 2017 — avg 14 · peak 36Jul 2017 — avg 16 · peak 56Dec 2017 — avg 13 · peak 43May 2018 — avg 9 · peak 24Oct 2018 — avg 8 · peak 26Mar 2019 — avg 10 · peak 31Aug 2019 — avg 8 · peak 26Jan 2020 — avg 7 · peak 23Jun 2020 — avg 9 · peak 25Nov 2020 — avg 7 · peak 29Apr 2021 — avg 6 · peak 17Sep 2021 — avg 6 · peak 19Feb 2022 — avg 5 · peak 16Jul 2022 — avg 6 · peak 18Dec 2022 — avg 6 · peak 25May 2023 — avg 4 · peak 12Oct 2023 — avg 5 · peak 14Mar 2024 — avg 7 · peak 38Aug 2024 — avg 5 · peak 22Jan 2025 — avg 4 · peak 16Jun 2025 — avg 4 · peak 11Nov 2025 — avg 4 · peak 12Apr 2026 — avg 5 · peak 15Aug 2026 — avg 4 · peak 13
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$9.99$0.992015-01-012026-10-142015-01-01 — best price $2.492015-11-02 — best price $9.992016-05-05 — best price $3.392016-11-14 — best price $9.992017-06-23 — best price $1.492018-01-01 — best price $2.002018-07-02 — best price $9.992018-12-01 — best price $9.992019-06-26 — best price $2.492019-12-17 — best price $1.992020-04-21 — best price $7.342020-06-19 — best price $8.892020-07-30 — best price $8.892020-09-18 — best price $9.992020-10-26 — best price $8.892020-12-06 — best price $9.992021-01-18 — best price $9.992021-02-22 — best price $1.872021-04-18 — best price $9.992021-05-26 — best price $9.992021-08-20 — best price $0.992022-02-28 — best price $1.872022-07-26 — best price $7.892022-11-29 — best price $9.992023-04-03 — best price $9.992023-10-23 — best price $9.992024-02-12 — best price $1.502024-05-14 — best price $1.992024-08-06 — best price $7.892025-03-31 — best price $9.992025-10-20 — best price $1.992026-03-09 — best price $1.992026-06-14 — best price $7.892026-10-14 — best price $2.00
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

4092026-06-01 — 17 pageviews2026-06-05 — 29 pageviews2026-06-09 — 18 pageviews2026-06-13 — 24 pageviews2026-06-17 — 22 pageviews2026-06-21 — 24 pageviews2026-06-25 — 28 pageviews2026-06-29 — 18 pageviews2026-07-03 — 21 pageviews2026-07-07 — 19 pageviews2026-07-11 — 15 pageviews2026-07-15 — 15 pageviews2026-07-19 — 27 pageviews2026-07-23 — 28 pageviews2026-07-27 — 25 pageviews2026-07-31 — 24 pageviews2026-08-04 — 9 pageviews2026-08-08 — 23 pageviews2026-08-12 — 23 pageviews2026-08-16 — 20 pageviews2026-08-20 — 17 pageviews2026-08-24 — 23 pageviews2026-08-28 — 15 pageviews2026-09-01 — 32 pageviews2026-09-05 — 26 pageviews2026-09-09 — 39 pageviews2026-09-13 — 25 pageviews2026-09-17 — 15 pageviews2026-09-21 — 15 pageviews2026-09-25 — 26 pageviews2026-09-29 — 40 pageviews2026-10-03 — 20 pageviews2026-10-07 — 20 pageviews2026-10-11 — 14 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

60+
achievements tracked
45.9%
earned "It's Cool, I've got this"
4.6%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSSingle-playerMulti-playerCo-opCross-Platform MultiplayerSteam AchievementsPartial Controller SupportSteam CloudSteam LeaderboardsFamily Sharing5 DLC

12 supported languages: English, Danish, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Swedish, Japanese, Polish, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Turkish

Post-launch support: 5 DLC released, first 2011-08-13, latest 2012-10-04 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)32,8811%100

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

FPSCo-opIndieActionCasualSci-fiShooterStrategyMultiplayerFirst-Person

Census log

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

Players also track

Sanctum 2Star Control®: OriginsUnclaimed WorldENDLESS Legend™ZigguratThe Long Journey HomeFactorioPaladins®

Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Wikipedia ↗