The Game Census
The Sapling cover art

The Sapling

Wessel Stoop · 2019-12-12

Steam

SimulationEarly Access

Modes: Single player

Releases: Dec 12, 2019 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Dec 12, 2019 (Linux)

The Sapling is a short simulation game where you design your own plants and animals, and put them in a world together. Or you turn on random mutations, and see what evolution does to your ecosystem!

8
playing now
89%
positive of 2.0k reviews
Very Positive
steam rating
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
70/100
IGDB user rating (1 ratings)
pending
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$17.99
steam price (US)

8 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 05:00 UTC (census sample)

Health check

Healthy
  • · 8 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 280 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~35/week).
  • · Review velocity up 7% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 23% of 6,689 Simulation games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 49k–118k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,971 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $7.99 at Steam (2019-12-12)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $17.99 · on sale 0 of 1 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
757520192026Week of 2019-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 46 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 49 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 36 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 75 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 66 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 36 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 52 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 70 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 47 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 36 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 57 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 2 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

3282026-08-11 18:00 — 32 players2026-08-12 10:00 — 19 players2026-08-13 01:00 — 17 players2026-08-13 16:00 — 20 players2026-08-14 08:00 — 19 players2026-08-15 00:00 — 24 players2026-08-15 16:00 — 28 players2026-08-16 08:00 — 18 players2026-08-17 00:00 — 22 players2026-08-17 16:00 — 28 players2026-08-18 07:00 — 25 players2026-08-18 23:00 — 28 players2026-08-19 15:00 — 29 players2026-08-20 07:00 — 15 players2026-08-20 22:00 — 20 players2026-08-21 14:00 — 20 players2026-08-22 06:00 — 15 players2026-08-22 22:00 — 31 players2026-08-23 13:00 — 29 players2026-08-24 05:00 — 18 players2026-08-24 21:00 — 24 players2026-08-25 13:00 — 20 players2026-08-26 05:00 — 14 players2026-08-26 21:00 — 20 players2026-08-27 13:00 — 14 players2026-08-28 05:00 — 11 players2026-08-28 21:00 — 20 players2026-08-29 13:00 — 26 players2026-08-30 05:00 — 8 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$17.99$7.992019-12-122025-11-012019-12-12 — best price $7.992019-12-15 — best price $8.002022-10-11 — best price $9.992023-12-10 — best price $12.992024-10-31 — best price $15.992025-11-01 — best price $17.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Completion

5
achievements tracked
89.7%
earned "Sweet Success"
52.8%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsLinuxSingle-playerSteam AchievementsSteam CloudFamily Sharing1 DLC

1 supported languages: English

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)3928%5

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

Player tags

AliensCasualNatureSandboxScienceGod GameLife SimRelaxingDinosaursEducation

Census log

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

Recent updates

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Speedruns ↗