The Game Census
Subsurface Circular cover art

Subsurface Circular

Bithell Games · 2017-08-17

Steam

AdventureCasualIndie

Modes: Single player

Releases: Oct 22, 2017 (iOS), Aug 17, 2017 (Mac), Mar 01, 2018 (Nintendo Switch), Aug 17, 2017 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

When the truth is buried, go underground. Step into this new take on text-based adventure from the award-winning team behind Thomas Was Alone and Volume. A short story that hands you the fate of the world above, as a detective looking for answers on the Subsurface Circular.

0
playing now
94%
positive of 1.9k reviews
Very Positive
steam rating
200,000–500,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
67/100
critic score (3 outlets, IGDB)
71/100
IGDB user rating (23 ratings)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$5.99
steam price (US)

0 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 03:00 UTC (census sample)

Subsurface Circular is a text-based adventure game developed and published by Mike Bithell Games. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and macOS on 17 August 2017, iOS on 23 October 2017 and Nintendo Switch on 1 March 2018. The game received critical acclaim for its engaging narrative and writing. A sequel to the game Quarantine Circular released on May 22, 2018.

Health check

Insufficient data
  • · Not enough review history collected yet to judge health.
  • · Top 22% of 11,312 Adventure games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 49k–116k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,941 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $1.19 at Steam (2022-06-15) · bundled 1×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $5.99 · on sale 9 of 18 observed days (census price snapshots)

Players online

102026-08-06 23:00 — 0 players2026-08-07 07:00 — 0 players2026-08-07 15:00 — 1 players2026-08-07 23:00 — 0 players2026-08-08 08:00 — 0 players2026-08-08 16:00 — 0 players2026-08-09 00:00 — 0 players2026-08-09 08:00 — 0 players2026-08-09 16:00 — 0 players2026-08-10 00:00 — 0 players2026-08-10 08:00 — 0 players2026-08-10 16:00 — 0 players2026-08-11 00:00 — 0 players2026-08-11 08:00 — 0 players2026-08-11 16:00 — 0 players2026-08-13 00:00 — 0 players2026-08-14 07:00 — 1 players2026-08-15 15:00 — 1 players2026-08-16 23:00 — 0 players2026-08-18 06:00 — 0 players2026-08-19 14:00 — 0 players2026-08-20 21:00 — 1 players2026-08-22 05:00 — 1 players2026-08-23 12:00 — 0 players2026-08-24 20:00 — 0 players2026-08-26 04:00 — 0 players2026-08-27 12:00 — 0 players2026-08-28 19:00 — 0 players2026-08-30 03:00 — 0 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$5.99$1.192017-08-182026-07-272017-08-18 — best price $4.792017-11-22 — best price $4.792018-03-19 — best price $4.792018-09-24 — best price $4.792018-11-21 — best price $4.792019-02-04 — best price $4.792019-05-10 — best price $4.792019-06-26 — best price $4.792019-10-24 — best price $5.392019-12-19 — best price $4.792020-02-03 — best price $4.792020-04-06 — best price $4.792020-10-05 — best price $4.792020-11-25 — best price $4.792021-02-11 — best price $2.992021-09-13 — best price $2.992021-11-24 — best price $2.992022-01-12 — best price $2.992022-06-15 — best price $1.192022-11-22 — best price $1.192023-03-16 — best price $1.192023-08-07 — best price $2.992023-11-21 — best price $4.792024-02-26 — best price $4.792024-04-08 — best price $4.792024-06-27 — best price $1.192024-10-27 — best price $5.992025-01-02 — best price $5.992025-03-20 — best price $5.992025-06-23 — best price $5.992025-08-04 — best price $5.992025-10-06 — best price $5.992026-01-05 — best price $5.992026-03-26 — best price $5.992026-07-09 — best price $5.992026-07-27 — best price $5.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

1802026-05-30 — 9 pageviews2026-06-02 — 1 pageviews2026-06-05 — 6 pageviews2026-06-08 — 3 pageviews2026-06-11 — 2 pageviews2026-06-14 — 8 pageviews2026-06-17 — 6 pageviews2026-06-20 — 11 pageviews2026-06-23 — 3 pageviews2026-06-26 — 9 pageviews2026-06-29 — 3 pageviews2026-07-02 — 7 pageviews2026-07-05 — 1 pageviews2026-07-08 — 18 pageviews2026-07-11 — 7 pageviews2026-07-14 — 5 pageviews2026-07-17 — 5 pageviews2026-07-20 — 2 pageviews2026-07-23 — 4 pageviews2026-07-26 — 3 pageviews2026-07-29 — 10 pageviews2026-08-01 — 4 pageviews2026-08-04 — 2 pageviews2026-08-07 — 7 pageviews2026-08-10 — 5 pageviews2026-08-13 — 6 pageviews2026-08-16 — 3 pageviews2026-08-19 — 9 pageviews2026-08-22 — 5 pageviews2026-08-25 — 5 pageviews2026-08-27 — 6 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

13
achievements tracked
86.7%
earned "The next case"
59.4%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSSingle-playerSteam AchievementsSteam CloudCommentary availableFamily Sharing

1 supported languages: English

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)3,38834%13
Switch (Nintendo)240%0

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

Player tags

NoirCasualRobotsSci-fiMysteryAdventureCyberpunkDetectiveStory RichText-Based

Census log

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

Players also track

The WitnessThe Talos PrincipleUnclaimed WorldZigguratGhost 1.0PLANET ALPHAUse Your WordsPikuniku

Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Wikipedia ↗