Data Trends in Survival Games

In this article we will compare the trends of some of the popular survival games. To make things simple, we have considered five popular survival games: Unturned, The Long Dark, Subnautica, Don’t Starve, Days Gone.

The below data is extracted from google trends from Apr 5, 2020, to Dec 6, 2020.

As we can see from the graph image, Subnautica had taken the lead from beginning to end. There is no doubt is one of the well-liked survival action-adventure developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment. The game was all about survival for hunger, health, oxygen, and thirst. Even PC Gamers overwhelmingly described Subautica as “underwater Minecraft.”

Days Gone is another action-adventure game to this list. Developed by Bend Studio, the game is the survival of Deacon St. John (protagonist) against the violent creatures roaming the planet. Although the game received mixed reviews, particularly IGN rated 6.5/10 and called it bloated and confusing, the game managed to gain popularity and was well-sold.

Don’t Starve, old but gold. It is a very quiet old game, first released in 2013, but it remains one of the most played survival games as of today. Influenced by Minecraft, it is rated 10/10 on Steam. The game is available on Steam, mobile, and desktops.

The fourth on our popularity list is Unturned, a free-to-play survival game brought by Smartly Dressed Games. It cross-platform game can be played on Windows, Linux, Mac. The game offers players several different game modes, but all are conceptualized based on zombie survival.

The fifth and final is our list is The Long Dark. It is played in a one-person mode, in which the protagonist (Will Mackenzie) struggles to survive the sub-zero wilderness of Canada. Launched in 2017, The Long Dark received a positive rating on initial release and three million copies had already been sold by the end of 2019.

One thing to notice in the above games, they continue to please players irrespective of how old or new the game is.