The Game Census
They Breathe cover art

They Breathe

The Working Parts · 2014-05-23

Steam

ActionAdventureIndie

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative · Perspectives: Side view

Releases: May 23, 2014 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Jul 29, 2020 (Nintendo Switch), May 23, 2014 (Mac), Dec 06, 2011 (Xbox 360)

They Breathe is a short journey into the depths of a forest filled with water. As you swim deeper, it's up to you to figure out the rules of an insidious ecosystem where nothing is as it first seems, and where everyone is after the same precious resource – oxygen!

They Breathe is an Action, Adventure, and Indie game released in 2014, priced at $1.99, with an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (84% of 1303 reviews).

1
playing now
84%
positive of 1.3k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
66/100
IGDB user rating (6 ratings)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Verified
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$1.99
steam price (US)

1 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 15:00 UTC (census sample)

Health check

Quiet
  • · 1 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 19 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~2/week).
  • · Review velocity up 73% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 13% of 27,667 Action games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-31

Estimated sales: 33k–78k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,306 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $0.49 at Steam (2017-06-22) · bundled 7×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $1.99 · on sale 3 of 6 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
262620172026Week of 2017-04-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-06-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2017-07-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2017-08-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2017-11-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2017-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2017-12-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2017-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 2 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

202026-09-15 00:00 — 0 players2026-09-16 08:00 — 0 players2026-09-17 16:00 — 0 players2026-09-18 23:00 — 1 players2026-09-20 07:00 — 0 players2026-09-21 15:00 — 1 players2026-09-22 22:00 — 0 players2026-09-24 06:00 — 0 players2026-09-25 13:00 — 0 players2026-09-26 21:00 — 0 players2026-09-28 04:00 — 0 players2026-09-29 12:00 — 0 players2026-09-30 19:00 — 0 players2026-10-02 03:00 — 0 players2026-10-03 10:00 — 0 players2026-10-04 18:00 — 0 players2026-10-06 02:00 — 1 players2026-10-07 09:00 — 0 players2026-10-08 17:00 — 0 players2026-10-10 00:00 — 0 players2026-10-11 08:00 — 0 players2026-10-12 16:00 — 0 players2026-10-13 23:00 — 0 players2026-10-14 15:00 — 1 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$2.99$0.492015-01-012026-07-092015-01-01 — best price $0.792015-03-05 — best price $2.202015-05-15 — best price $2.272015-06-22 — best price $1.992015-08-27 — best price $2.252015-10-29 — best price $0.792015-11-16 — best price $1.502015-12-03 — best price $1.092016-02-05 — best price $2.232016-04-18 — best price $1.132016-06-23 — best price $0.792016-11-01 — best price $1.992017-01-02 — best price $1.992017-11-01 — best price $1.992018-01-04 — best price $1.992018-07-05 — best price $1.992018-11-27 — best price $1.992019-02-12 — best price $1.992019-06-26 — best price $0.492019-11-26 — best price $0.492020-01-23 — best price $0.492020-04-14 — best price $1.792020-06-25 — best price $0.492020-11-02 — best price $1.992021-01-05 — best price $1.992021-05-09 — best price $2.252021-08-02 — best price $1.992021-12-01 — best price $1.992022-02-03 — best price $1.992022-06-23 — best price $0.992022-12-22 — best price $0.992023-06-29 — best price $0.992023-12-21 — best price $0.992024-03-21 — best price $1.992024-10-27 — best price $1.992025-01-02 — best price $1.992025-03-20 — best price $1.992025-10-06 — best price $1.992026-03-26 — best price $1.992026-07-09 — best price $1.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Completion

8
achievements tracked
24.1%
earned "Impossible in '09"
7.9%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSSingle-playerMulti-playerShared/Split Screen PvPCo-opShared/Split Screen Co-opShared/Split ScreenSteam AchievementsSteam Trading CardsDualShock Controller SupportDualShock Controller Support1 DLC

1 supported languages: English

Post-launch support: 1 DLC released, first 2020-05-24 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)1,78814%8
Switch (Nintendo)50%0

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

Player tags

2DDarkIndieShortActionNatureStylizedSurvivalAdventureHand-drawn

Census log

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

Players also track

Don't Knock TwiceDARQ: Complete EditionCitadel: Forged with FireEternity: The Last UnicornDream AloneRebel Galaxy OutlawApsulov: End of GodsTorchlight III

Similarity via IGDB.

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