Bully: Scholarship Edition
Bully: Scholarship Edition screenshot 1Bully: Scholarship Edition screenshot 2
ActionAdventureOpen WorldThird PersonSingleplayerComedyGreat Soundtrack

143 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 509

Peak in the last 7 days: 571

Bully: Scholarship Edition Steam store

Game description

Bully tells the story of mischievous 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins as he goes through the hilarity and awkwardness of adolescence. Beat the jocks at dodge ball, play pranks on the preppies, save the nerds, kiss the girl and navigate the social hierarchy in the worst school around.

Basic info

DeveloperRockstar New England
PublisherRockstar Games
PlatformsWindows
Steam DeckPlayable
Release dateOct 21, 2008
Price

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows 10
ProcessorIntel Pentium 4 (3+ GHZ) / AMD Athlon 3000+
Memory1 GB
GraphicsDirectX 9.0c Shader 3.0 supported, Nvidia 6800 or 7300 or better, ATI Radeon X1300 or bet…
Storage4.7 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 378 reviews from the past 1 year

80.3/ 100
Bottom 50%

Steam rating: Very Positive (84%)

Metacritic: 72 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 22, 2026)

Players adore its school setting yet warn about the port, and Bully: Scholarship Edition scores 80.3 from 378 analyzed reviews.

👍 Strengths

168 reviews say they love it and find it fun, and some describe it as a nostalgic favorite that still holds up. 52 praise the story, describing charming writing, satirical humor about school life and a lead who grows over the course of the plot. 32 enjoy the world and atmosphere, singling out the towns, holiday segments, soundtrack and mini games. Story & World ranks 194th of 1096, and Content Volume ranks 235th of 1351. Gameplay ranks 607th of 1396.

👎 Where it falls short

Tech & Support appears in 65% of analyzed reviews and ranks 1387th of 1399. 205 reviews report crashes and bugs, and some say the game is barely playable without fan patches. 24 criticize the performance of the PC port, describing frequent crashes, poor optimization and trouble running it on modern hardware. 19 find the controls clunky or outdated, and some say keyboard and mouse play is poor and recommend a gamepad. Others say several mods are needed to fix graphics and sound. Visuals & Sound ranks 928th of 1249.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“game helped overcome bullying trauma and improved self-worth” · 168 reviews
“gripping story with memorable characters and satirical tone about school life” · 52 reviews
“audio and music are a masterpiece” · 17 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 30% of reviews · Top 50% of the games we've analyzed

Freedom +3.00 · Room to explore, build, and play your own way
Positive “sandbox is fun to mess around in despite being limited” · 2 reviews

Progression 8% · Difficulty 3% · Onboarding 3% · Strategy 5% · Controls & feel 15%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 42% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Story +3.36 · Plot, quests, writing, and the ending
Positive “gripping story with memorable characters and satirical tone about school life” · 52 reviews
Negative “story feels rushed, final faction underdeveloped, villain underutilized” · 4 reviews

Characters 18% · World 21%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 20% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +2.39 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “completed 100% with all collectibles, clothes, missions, classes, photos” · 6 reviews
Negative “wish the game is a little longer” · 3 reviews

Variety 8% · Replayability 3%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 24% of reviews · Bottom 30% of the games we've analyzed

Audio +3.47 · Music, sound effects, and voice acting
Positive “audio and music are a masterpiece” · 17 reviews
Negative “forgettable background music that doesn't create recognizable style” · 2 reviews

Visuals 12%

Playing with others, the community and servers

Not enough data — only 5% of reviews mention this.

Playing together +3.46 · Fun of playing with friends, teammates, or rivals

Community 2% · Servers & Connection 0%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 4% of reviews · Top 40% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing -0.03 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Negative “overpriced at 15 dollars, free elsewhere” · 1 review

Anti-cheat 0% · Balance 1% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 65% of reviews · Bottom 1% of the games we've analyzed

Stability -2.03 · Crashes, freezes, save loss, and game-breaking bugs
Negative “crashes constantly, game barely playable between crashes” · 205 reviews
Positive “crashes fixed with guide, works perfectly” · 3 reviews

Performance 21% · Developer support 26%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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