The Game Census
The Descendant cover art

The Descendant

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

Steam

AdventureCasualIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Third person

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.

The Descendant is an Adventure, Casual, Indie game released in 2016, priced at $14.99, with an estimated 2,000,000 .. 5,000,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (88% of 7146 reviews).

84
playing now
88%
positive of 7.1k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
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)
Verified
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$14.99
steam price (US)

84 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 10:00 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)

Trailer

The Descendant trailer thumbnail

THE DESCENDANTS - Official HD Trailer

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

Health check

Quiet
  • · 84 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 4% of 28,739 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-29

Estimated sales: 179k–429k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 7,146 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

Steam$1.49-90%

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

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

12-month high $9.34 · on sale 14 of 15 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

15422026-09-15 11:00 — 13 players2026-09-16 20:00 — 16 players2026-09-18 03:00 — 13 players2026-09-19 11:00 — 14 players2026-09-20 18:00 — 9 players2026-09-22 02:00 — 11 players2026-09-23 09:00 — 19 players2026-09-24 17:00 — 17 players2026-09-26 00:00 — 14 players2026-09-27 08:00 — 8 players2026-09-28 15:00 — 15 players2026-09-29 23:00 — 10 players2026-10-01 06:00 — 5 players2026-10-02 14:00 — 9 players2026-10-03 22:00 — 8 players2026-10-05 06:00 — 10 players2026-10-06 13:00 — 15 players2026-10-07 21:00 — 9 players2026-10-09 04:00 — 53 players2026-10-10 12:00 — 36 players2026-10-11 19:00 — 42 players2026-10-13 03:00 — 14 players2026-10-14 10:00 — 84 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
10k0Feb 2016Aug 2026Feb 2016 — avg 0 · peak 4Jun 2016 — avg 1 · peak 8Oct 2016 — avg 4 · peak 15Feb 2017 — avg 1 · peak 7Jun 2017 — avg 111 · peak 1,691Oct 2017 — avg 74 · peak 917Feb 2018 — avg 134 · peak 1,312Jun 2018 — avg 119 · peak 1,096Oct 2018 — avg 91 · peak 1,952Feb 2019 — avg 67 · peak 4,575Jun 2019 — avg 194 · peak 3,952Oct 2019 — avg 33 · peak 589Feb 2020 — avg 26 · peak 293Jun 2020 — avg 134 · peak 1,198Oct 2020 — avg 146 · peak 2,973Feb 2021 — avg 89 · peak 1,322Jun 2021 — avg 266 · peak 11,813Oct 2021 — avg 238 · peak 12,233Feb 2022 — avg 66 · peak 627Jun 2022 — avg 303 · peak 11,725Oct 2022 — avg 151 · peak 2,924Feb 2023 — avg 193 · peak 2,771Jun 2023 — avg 643 · peak 35,037Oct 2023 — avg 311 · peak 4,360Feb 2024 — avg 259 · peak 6,270Jun 2024 — avg 10,282 · peak 126,070Oct 2024 — avg 13 · peak 501Feb 2025 — avg 12 · peak 62Jun 2025 — avg 20 · peak 124Oct 2025 — avg 3 · peak 8Feb 2026 — avg 15 · peak 37Jun 2026 — avg 7 · peak 20Aug 2026 — avg 8 · peak 18
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$14.99$0.002016-03-252026-10-062016-03-25 — 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 $1.292026-10-06 — 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.

Where its players are

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

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 ThoughtsUnlucky SevenYuppie Psycho: Executive Edition

Similarity via IGDB.

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