The Game Census
The Lab cover art

The Lab

Valve · 2016-04-05

Steam

Free To Play

Franchise: Portal · Modes: Single player

Releases: Apr 05, 2016 (Windows Mixed Reality), Apr 05, 2016 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Apr 05, 2016 (SteamVR), Apr 05, 2016 (Oculus Rift), Apr 05, 2016 (Oculus VR)

Welcome to The Lab, a compilation of Valve’s room-scale VR experiments set in a pocket universe within Aperture Science. Fix a robot, defend a castle, adopt a mechanical dog, and more. Still not sold? It’s free!

8
playing now
95%
positive of 6.7k reviews
Very Positive
steam rating
1,000,000–2,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
80/100
IGDB user rating (22 ratings)
1h
time to beat (IGDB)
silver
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Free
steam price (US)

8 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 01:00 UTC (census sample)

The Lab is a virtual reality (VR) video game developed by Valve and released for Windows on April 5, 2016. It uses VR technology to showcase a series of play experiences accessed through a hub room. The game is set in the Portal universe and offers eight different game types that involve short demo experiences that use different aspects of the VR capabilities. Variety is also offered beyond the experiences themselves by the amount of interactability with objects in the environment that is included. During the 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated The Lab for "Immersive Reality Game of the Year".

Health check

Healthy
  • · 8 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 203 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~25/week).
  • · Review velocity down 13% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 11% of 2,970 Free To Play games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-29

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
20220220182026Week of 2018-01-01: 56 positiveWeek of 2018-01-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2018-02-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2018-03-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 53 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 57 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 49 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 95 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 49 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 42 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 102 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 116 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 70 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 85 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 72 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 46 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 94 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 82 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 52 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 65 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 81 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 63 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 51 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 66 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 60 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 75 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 87 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 71 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 58 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 63 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 59 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 45 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 61 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 47 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 52 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 59 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 79 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 46 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 46 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 37 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 45 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 42 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 43 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 202 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 26 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 36 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 2 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

2282026-08-06 21:00 — 9 players2026-08-07 05:00 — 11 players2026-08-07 13:00 — 12 players2026-08-07 21:00 — 15 players2026-08-08 05:00 — 8 players2026-08-08 13:00 — 18 players2026-08-08 21:00 — 16 players2026-08-09 05:00 — 11 players2026-08-09 13:00 — 13 players2026-08-09 21:00 — 16 players2026-08-10 05:00 — 12 players2026-08-10 13:00 — 14 players2026-08-10 21:00 — 16 players2026-08-11 05:00 — 11 players2026-08-11 13:00 — 14 players2026-08-12 21:00 — 9 players2026-08-14 05:00 — 9 players2026-08-15 12:00 — 16 players2026-08-16 20:00 — 21 players2026-08-18 04:00 — 13 players2026-08-19 12:00 — 9 players2026-08-20 19:00 — 13 players2026-08-22 03:00 — 14 players2026-08-23 10:00 — 19 players2026-08-24 18:00 — 16 players2026-08-26 02:00 — 11 players2026-08-27 10:00 — 8 players2026-08-28 17:00 — 22 players2026-08-30 01:00 — 8 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Attention

79212026-05-31 — 42 pageviews2026-06-03 — 39 pageviews2026-06-06 — 36 pageviews2026-06-09 — 41 pageviews2026-06-12 — 38 pageviews2026-06-15 — 33 pageviews2026-06-18 — 37 pageviews2026-06-21 — 32 pageviews2026-06-24 — 46 pageviews2026-06-27 — 40 pageviews2026-06-30 — 41 pageviews2026-07-03 — 49 pageviews2026-07-06 — 47 pageviews2026-07-09 — 43 pageviews2026-07-12 — 35 pageviews2026-07-15 — 45 pageviews2026-07-18 — 27 pageviews2026-07-21 — 35 pageviews2026-07-24 — 40 pageviews2026-07-27 — 38 pageviews2026-07-30 — 44 pageviews2026-08-02 — 26 pageviews2026-08-05 — 28 pageviews2026-08-08 — 41 pageviews2026-08-11 — 42 pageviews2026-08-14 — 33 pageviews2026-08-17 — 34 pageviews2026-08-20 — 57 pageviews2026-08-23 — 52 pageviews2026-08-26 — 59 pageviews2026-08-28 — 41 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Details

WindowsSingle-playerTracked Controller SupportVR OnlyVR SupportSteamVR CollectiblesSteam LeaderboardsFamily Sharing

20 supported languages: English, French, German, Czech, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Portuguese - Brazil, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Swedish…

Player tags

VRFPSFunnyMemesActionCasualPuzzleSci-fiSandboxShooter

Census log

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

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

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