The Game Census
When the Darkness comes cover art

When the Darkness comes

Sirhaian · 2019-03-01

Steam

AdventureFree To PlayIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: First person

Releases: Jan 12, 2019 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

When the Darkness comes is a walking simulator whose glitchy and dark tale tries to illustrate the hardships of depression and anxiety through a variety of imaginary digital landscapes.

When the Darkness comes is a 2019 Adventure, Free To Play and Indie game with an owner estimate of 200,000 .. 500,000, priced at free-to-play, and holds a Very Positive review sentiment (92% of 8428 reviews).— census verdict as of 2026-09-20

0
playing now
92%
positive of 8.4k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
200,000–500,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
90/100
critic score (1 outlets, IGDB)
75/100
IGDB user rating (21 ratings)
1.4h
to beat · rushed 1.5h · completionist 3h
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
Free
steam price (US)

0 players in-game as of 2026-10-15 04:00 UTC (census sample)

Taking around an hour on the first play-through, "When The Darkness Comes" feels like you’re wandering around a glitchy hard drive full of abstract dreams and beautiful nightmares. The narrator initially makes it feel like a comedic game, but it soon starts to take a darker tone as you travel down the bizarre broken rabbit hole that explores the darkest themes of the human mind. From a Factory to underwater, from a crystal forest to an Angel sanctuary, or from a dark metro to a white desert, When the Darkness comes offers a multitude of digital landscapes that will activate your senses and ima(Storyline via IGDB)

Trailer

When the Darkness comes trailer thumbnail

When the Darkness comes | Launch Trailer (PC)

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

Health check

Quietly active
  • · 0 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 166 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~21/week).
  • · Review velocity down 16% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Current weekly pace is under 5% of the all-time peak week (2,493 reviews).
  • · Top 4% of 29,019 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
2.3k2.3k20192026Week of 2019-03-01: 2,282 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 211 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 394 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 49 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 193 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 164 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 186 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 104 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 74 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 139 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 422 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 192 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 168 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 148 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 15 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 218 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 232 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 26 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 234 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 20 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 177 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 160 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 16 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 133 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 14 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 123 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 124 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 12 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 128 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 11 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 119 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 144 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 126 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 107 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 91 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 74 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 59 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 82 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 55 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 50 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 60 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 51 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 65 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 71 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 54 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 55 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 44 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 51 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 41 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 35 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 1 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

402026-09-15 13:00 — 2 players2026-09-16 21:00 — 1 players2026-09-18 05:00 — 1 players2026-09-19 12:00 — 4 players2026-09-20 20:00 — 2 players2026-09-22 04:00 — 0 players2026-09-23 11:00 — 2 players2026-09-24 19:00 — 0 players2026-09-26 02:00 — 1 players2026-09-27 10:00 — 0 players2026-09-28 17:00 — 2 players2026-09-30 01:00 — 3 players2026-10-01 08:00 — 1 players2026-10-02 16:00 — 2 players2026-10-03 23:00 — 2 players2026-10-05 07:00 — 3 players2026-10-06 15:00 — 2 players2026-10-07 22:00 — 0 players2026-10-09 06:00 — 0 players2026-10-10 13:00 — 3 players2026-10-11 21:00 — 1 players2026-10-13 05:00 — 0 players2026-10-14 12:00 — 2 players2026-10-15 04:00 — 0 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Completion

32
achievements tracked
89.8%
earned "Thanks for playing!"
20.6%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFamily Sharing

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)5,56313%32

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

DarkIndieHorrorAdventureNarrationStory RichAtmosphericFirst-PersonFree to PlaySingleplayer

Census log

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

Players also track

Don't Knock TwiceMasochisiaRusty Lake HotelOmensight: Definitive EditionRusty Lake: RootsThe Watson-Scott TestApsulov: End of GodsPacify

Similarity via IGDB.

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