The Game Census
The Descendant cover art

The Descendant

Gaming Corps AB · Microids Indie · 2016-03-24

Steam

AdventureCasualIndie

Modes: Single player

Releases: Mar 24, 2016 (Mac), Mar 24, 2016 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

In THE DESCENDANT, the end of the world is only the start. With what remains of humanity protected in underground Ark facilities, your mission is to keep survivors alive, while discovering a far greater conspiracy buried within Ark-01.

12
playing now
88%
positive of 7.2k reviews
Very Positive
steam rating
2,000,000–5,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
76/100
critic score (4 outlets, IGDB)
70/100
IGDB user rating (6 ratings)
6h
to beat · rushed 5h
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$14.99
steam price (US)

12 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 16:00 UTC (census sample)

After climate change wrecked the planet, a man-made extinction event wiped humankind off the face of the Earth. Only a few thousand ‘descendants of humanity’ were hand-picked to survive the apocalypse, cryogenically suspended in underground bunkers known as Arks. Centuries passed. The world recovered from the nuclear holocaust, and all the Arks reopened, except one — Ark-01. Taking place across two timelines, in the past you'll play as Mia, a janitor tasked with keeping the precious descendants housed within Ark-01 alive while the facility continually fails around her, and in the present, yo(Storyline via IGDB)

Health check

Quiet
  • · 12 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 18 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~2/week).
  • · Review velocity up 6% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 10% of 11,312 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-29

Estimated sales: 179k–429k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 7,158 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $0.56 at SilaGames (2016-11-23) · bundled 2×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $9.34 · on sale 10 of 11 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
101020182026Week of 2018-01-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2018-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 1 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1722026-08-06 21:00 — 5 players2026-08-07 05:00 — 6 players2026-08-07 13:00 — 8 players2026-08-07 21:00 — 3 players2026-08-08 05:00 — 3 players2026-08-08 13:00 — 6 players2026-08-08 21:00 — 6 players2026-08-09 05:00 — 4 players2026-08-09 13:00 — 4 players2026-08-09 21:00 — 5 players2026-08-10 05:00 — 6 players2026-08-10 13:00 — 8 players2026-08-10 21:00 — 6 players2026-08-11 05:00 — 10 players2026-08-11 13:00 — 3 players2026-08-12 21:00 — 8 players2026-08-14 04:00 — 8 players2026-08-15 12:00 — 7 players2026-08-16 20:00 — 6 players2026-08-18 04:00 — 6 players2026-08-19 11:00 — 7 players2026-08-20 19:00 — 16 players2026-08-22 02:00 — 15 players2026-08-23 10:00 — 9 players2026-08-24 17:00 — 10 players2026-08-26 01:00 — 9 players2026-08-27 09:00 — 17 players2026-08-28 17:00 — 17 players2026-08-30 01:00 — 8 players2026-08-30 16:00 — 12 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$14.99$0.002016-03-252026-08-102016-03-25 — best price $2.992016-11-23 — best price $0.562017-05-18 — best price $14.992017-12-15 — best price $4.702018-04-19 — best price $3.712018-08-06 — best price $4.712018-11-28 — best price $11.902019-04-01 — best price $4.742019-08-07 — best price $2.992019-09-28 — best price $13.942019-12-13 — best price $12.522020-01-07 — best price $12.312020-01-25 — best price $14.052020-02-06 — best price $13.982020-02-21 — best price $2.362020-05-03 — best price $14.992020-06-26 — best price $0.002020-07-17 — best price $1.492020-08-04 — best price $0.002020-08-26 — best price $0.002020-09-27 — best price $0.002020-10-18 — best price $14.992020-11-28 — best price $0.002021-01-01 — best price $0.002021-01-27 — best price $0.002021-02-15 — best price $1.502021-05-03 — best price $1.502021-08-18 — best price $1.512022-03-02 — best price $14.182023-02-01 — best price $1.352023-06-12 — best price $2.632024-02-11 — best price $9.342024-05-20 — best price $9.342025-02-07 — best price $9.342025-08-04 — best price $9.342026-08-07 — best price $1.292026-08-10 — best price $1.49
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Completion

50
achievements tracked
12.3%
earned "At World’s End"
10.6%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSFull controller supportSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFull controller supportSteam Trading CardsCaptions availableFamily Sharing

4 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)6,26637%50

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

Player tags

IndieCasualHorrorSci-fiEpisodicAdventureStory RichAtmosphericFree to PlaySingleplayer

Census log

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

Players also track

Unclaimed WorldRusty Lake HotelOmensight: Definitive EditionFigmentUnforeseen IncidentsQuern - Undying ThoughtsYuppie Psycho: Executive EditionIris.Fall

Similarity via IGDB.

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