The Game Census
What Never Was cover art

What Never Was

Acke Hallgren · 2019-01-11

Steam

AdventureCasualIndieFree To Play

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: First person

Releases: Jan 10, 2019 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Jan 10, 2019 (Mac), Jan 10, 2019 (Linux)

What Never Was is a short, story-driven first-person game focused on exploration and puzzle-solving about Sarah, having to shoulder the arduous task of clearing out her grandfathers attic, and soon finds that not everything about the attic is what it seems.

What Never Was is a 2019 Adventure, Casual, Indie and Free To Play game priced at free-to-play, with a Very Positive review sentiment (95% of 5100 reviews) and an owner estimate of 200,000 .. 500,000.— census verdict as of 2026-09-20

3
playing now
95%
positive of 5.1k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
200,000–500,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
69/100
IGDB user rating (28 ratings)
1h
time to beat (IGDB)
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Verified
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
Free
steam price (US)

3 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 12:00 UTC (census sample)

Sometime in the late 2000s, Howard James Wright - an old but kind man - perishes. Leaving behind him many adventures, relics he's collected over the years as well as books authored, he is also leaving Sarah, his granddaughter behind. Having to shoulder the arduous task of clearing out her grandfather's attic, she is soon to find that not everything about her grandfather's attic is what it seems.(Storyline via IGDB)

Health check

Quietly active
  • · 3 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 94 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~12/week).
  • · Review velocity down 23% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Current weekly pace is under 5% of the all-time peak week (1,163 reviews).
  • · Top 5% of 28,838 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
1.1k1.1k20192026Week of 2019-01-01: 1,119 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 44 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 321 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 203 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 111 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 109 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 102 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 86 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 55 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 60 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 69 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 213 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 114 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 108 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 82 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 130 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 131 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 154 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 116 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 102 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 102 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 66 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 61 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 71 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 76 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 67 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 38 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 57 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 10 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1302026-09-15 13:00 — 2 players2026-09-16 22:00 — 3 players2026-09-18 05:00 — 1 players2026-09-19 13:00 — 3 players2026-09-20 20:00 — 1 players2026-09-22 04:00 — 3 players2026-09-23 11:00 — 3 players2026-09-24 19:00 — 7 players2026-09-26 02:00 — 0 players2026-09-27 10:00 — 1 players2026-09-28 17:00 — 1 players2026-09-30 01:00 — 4 players2026-10-01 08:00 — 1 players2026-10-02 16:00 — 1 players2026-10-04 00:00 — 0 players2026-10-05 08:00 — 1 players2026-10-06 15:00 — 0 players2026-10-07 23:00 — 0 players2026-10-09 06:00 — 0 players2026-10-10 14:00 — 13 players2026-10-11 21:00 — 11 players2026-10-13 05:00 — 1 players2026-10-14 12:00 — 3 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Completion

6
achievements tracked
65.6%
earned "Back Together"
23.8%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSLinuxSingle-playerSteam AchievementsPartial Controller SupportFamily Sharing

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)4,71061%6

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

IndieShortCasualPuzzleMysteryRelaxingAdventureStory RichAtmosphericExploration

Census log

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

Players also track

Don't Knock TwiceHouse of CaravanToby: The Secret MineRusty Lake HotelUnforeseen IncidentsQuern - Undying ThoughtsRusty Lake: RootsForgotton Anne

Similarity via IGDB.

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