The Game Census
Solar Ash cover art

Solar Ash

Heart Machine · Annapurna Interactive · 2022-12-08

SteamPlayStation StoreEpic Games StoreMicrosoft Store

ActionAdventure

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Third person

Releases: Dec 02, 2021 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Dec 02, 2021 (PlayStation 4), Dec 02, 2021 (PlayStation 5), Sep 14, 2023 (Xbox One), Sep 14, 2023 (Xbox Series X|S), Sep 14, 2023 (Nintendo Switch)

From the creators of the award-winning Hyper Light Drifter comes the high-speed and gravity-bending world of Solar Ash.

Solar Ash is a $9.99 Action and Adventure game released in 2022, with an estimated 50,000 .. 100,000 owners and Very Positive (90% of 1515 reviews) sentiment.

2
playing now
90%
positive of 1.5k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
50,000–100,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
82/100
critic score (7 outlets, IGDB)
72/100
IGDB user rating (26 ratings)
2
Nexus mods (86 downloads)
4.40★
PlayStation Store rating (712 ratings)
8h
to beat · rushed 6h · completionist 9h
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$9.99
steam price (US)

2 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 17:00 UTC (census sample)

Solar Ash is an action-adventure platform game developed by Heart Machine and published by Annapurna Interactive. It was released on December 2, 2021 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Windows. It was also released via Steam on December 8, 2022, and it was released for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on September 14, 2023. The game's science fiction story explores themes of trauma and moving on from dramatic, devastating life events. It is set in the same fictional universe as Heart Machine's first and previous game, Hyper Light Drifter, but there are no direct connections between the two games' stories.

Health check

Quietly active
  • · 2 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 130 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~16/week).
  • · Review velocity up 4% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 13% of 27,649 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-31

Estimated sales: 30k–68k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,515 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

GameBillet$7.85-80%
IndieGala$7.89-80%
Fanatical$7.99-80%
Gamesplanet$8.45-79%
WinGameStore$9.99-75%
GamersGate$10.00-75%
Microsoft Store$39.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $7.75 at GameBillet (2026-06-26) · bundled 1×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $39.99 · on sale 95 of 123 observed days · $0.10 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
23223220222026Week of 2022-12-01: 232 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 25 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 62 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 54 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 61 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 37 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 3 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1002026-09-15 02:00 — 5 players2026-09-16 11:00 — 3 players2026-09-17 18:00 — 4 players2026-09-19 02:00 — 1 players2026-09-20 09:00 — 0 players2026-09-21 17:00 — 4 players2026-09-23 00:00 — 5 players2026-09-24 08:00 — 2 players2026-09-25 15:00 — 0 players2026-09-26 23:00 — 4 players2026-09-28 06:00 — 0 players2026-09-29 14:00 — 3 players2026-09-30 21:00 — 4 players2026-10-02 05:00 — 2 players2026-10-03 12:00 — 4 players2026-10-04 21:00 — 2 players2026-10-06 04:00 — 4 players2026-10-07 12:00 — 0 players2026-10-08 19:00 — 6 players2026-10-10 03:00 — 10 players2026-10-11 10:00 — 3 players2026-10-12 18:00 — 10 players2026-10-14 01:00 — 5 players2026-10-14 17:00 — 2 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
533Dec 2022Aug 2026Dec 2022 — avg 53 · peak 168Feb 2023 — avg 8 · peak 30Apr 2023 — avg 7 · peak 21Jun 2023 — avg 5 · peak 29Aug 2023 — avg 7 · peak 29Oct 2023 — avg 6 · peak 22Dec 2023 — avg 8 · peak 31Feb 2024 — avg 7 · peak 27Apr 2024 — avg 10 · peak 37Jun 2024 — avg 9 · peak 27Aug 2024 — avg 4 · peak 12Oct 2024 — avg 3 · peak 9Dec 2024 — avg 8 · peak 22Feb 2025 — avg 6 · peak 20Apr 2025 — avg 5 · peak 13Jun 2025 — avg 5 · peak 16Aug 2025 — avg 4 · peak 12Oct 2025 — avg 4 · peak 14Jan 2026 — avg 4 · peak 21Mar 2026 — avg 3 · peak 10May 2026 — avg 4 · peak 15Jul 2026 — avg 7 · peak 21Aug 2026 — avg 5 · peak 15
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$39.99$6.812021-11-182026-10-112021-11-18 — best price $35.992022-11-01 — best price $39.992023-01-05 — best price $39.992023-02-11 — best price $30.652023-03-17 — best price $24.172023-04-29 — best price $25.992023-06-15 — best price $39.992023-07-20 — best price $19.842023-08-22 — best price $19.742023-10-13 — best price $20.742023-11-17 — best price $17.952023-12-22 — best price $23.992024-02-08 — best price $21.792024-03-07 — best price $19.992024-04-06 — best price $36.752024-05-06 — best price $30.592024-06-05 — best price $17.602024-07-11 — best price $15.992024-07-30 — best price $15.662024-08-19 — best price $34.812025-01-09 — best price $39.992025-03-15 — best price $16.002025-04-27 — best price $28.792025-07-10 — best price $10.592025-08-16 — best price $30.652025-10-06 — best price $13.802025-11-18 — best price $39.992026-01-05 — best price $39.992026-02-17 — best price $39.992026-03-25 — best price $39.592026-04-18 — best price $30.652026-05-21 — best price $7.892026-06-29 — best price $33.492026-07-31 — best price $6.812026-08-26 — best price $7.592026-09-15 — best price $7.872026-10-11 — best price $7.85
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

866302026-05-31 — 84 pageviews2026-06-04 — 60 pageviews2026-06-08 — 78 pageviews2026-06-12 — 53 pageviews2026-06-16 — 69 pageviews2026-06-20 — 43 pageviews2026-06-24 — 40 pageviews2026-06-28 — 60 pageviews2026-07-02 — 50 pageviews2026-07-06 — 56 pageviews2026-07-10 — 44 pageviews2026-07-14 — 47 pageviews2026-07-18 — 42 pageviews2026-07-22 — 45 pageviews2026-07-26 — 51 pageviews2026-07-30 — 36 pageviews2026-08-03 — 53 pageviews2026-08-07 — 44 pageviews2026-08-11 — 43 pageviews2026-08-15 — 49 pageviews2026-08-19 — 39 pageviews2026-08-23 — 56 pageviews2026-08-27 — 63 pageviews2026-08-31 — 55 pageviews2026-09-04 — 52 pageviews2026-09-08 — 31 pageviews2026-09-12 — 49 pageviews2026-09-16 — 866 pageviews2026-09-20 — 91 pageviews2026-09-24 — 67 pageviews2026-09-28 — 52 pageviews2026-10-02 — 43 pageviews2026-10-06 — 45 pageviews2026-10-09 — 53 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

32
achievements tracked
93.2%
earned "Your Eyes Are Open"
33%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsFull controller supportSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFull controller supportSteam CloudFamily Sharing1 DLC

12 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America

Post-launch support: 1 DLC released, first 2022-12-08 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Xbox Series, Xbox One (Xbox)7,5202%32
PS5 (PlayStation)1,52313%33
Steam (Steam)1,2178%32
PS4 (PlayStation)31720%33
Switch (Nintendo)260%0

Players tracked by Exophase (achievement/trophy trackers) — a sample of the player base, not total sales.

Player tags

3DSpaceActionSci-fiSandboxColorfulAdventureFuturisticPlatformerAtmospheric

Census log

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

Players also track

Star Control®: OriginsTanziaToby: The Secret MinePLANET ALPHAForgotton AnneSemblanceRebel Galaxy OutlawApsulov: End of Gods

Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Wikipedia ↗