Subnautica ▶ Trailer
Subnautica screenshot 1Subnautica screenshot 2
AdventureIndieOpen World Survival CraftSurvivalHorrorUnderwaterOpen World

2,871 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 5,137

Peak in the last 7 days: 6,451

Subnautica Steam store

Game description

Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world filled with wonder and peril. Craft equipment, pilot submarines and out-smart wildlife to explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes, cave systems, and more - all while trying to survive.

Basic info

DeveloperUnknown Worlds Entertainment
PublisherUnknown Worlds Entertainment
PlatformsWindows · macOS
Steam DeckVerified
Release dateJan 23, 2018
Price

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows Vista SP2 or newer, 64-bit
ProcessorIntel Haswell 2 cores / 4 threads @ 2.5Ghz or equivalent
Memory4 GB
GraphicsIntel HD 4600 or equivalent - This includes most GPUs scoring greater than 950 points in…
Storage20 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 409 reviews from the past 1 year

94.3/ 100
Top 5%

Steam rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (97%)

Metacritic: 87 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 13, 2026)

A gripping atmosphere leads 188 reviews of Subnautica, the most upvoted citing terrifying sea monsters, ranked 22nd of 1447 overall at 94.3.

👍 Strengths

Story & World ranks 31st of 1096 and comes up in 70% of analyzed reviews. 92 reviews say they enjoyed it, the most upvoted rating it ten out of ten for graphics, play and audio, and 27 praise the graphics and art style. Visuals & Sound ranks 85th of 1249 and Gameplay 50th of 1396. Players say exploration is encouraged, with clues to piece together and no tight hand holding, and some call it the best story they have seen.

👎 Where it falls short

The complaints are few. 23 reviews find the start confusing for new players, the most upvoted missing markers and a quest log, and 22 report lost saves, the most upvoted losing progress twice without an autosave. 10 feel the loop becomes monotonous. A few find gathering some resources too grindy, and some say there is little to do after the ending.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“incredible atmosphere and terrifying sea monsters create immersive exploration” · 188 reviews
“marked 10/10 with beautiful graphics, very good gameplay, eargasm audio” · 92 reviews
“Good graphics with beautiful art style” · 27 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 60% of reviews · Top 5% of the games we've analyzed

Freedom +4.03 · Room to explore, build, and play your own way
Positive “exploration encouraged, player investigates and pieces clues together, hand not held too tightly” · 15 reviews
Negative “cannot change beta version to use mods anymore” · 4 reviews

Progression 22% · Difficulty 21% · Onboarding 12% · Strategy 4% · Controls & feel 6%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 70% of reviews · Top 5% of the games we've analyzed

World +4.51 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “incredible atmosphere and terrifying sea monsters create immersive exploration” · 188 reviews
Negative “encountered a giant demon early and stopped playing” · 4 reviews

Story 34% · Characters 2%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 32% of reviews · Top 10% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +3.34 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “78 hours first playthrough with multiple hardcore replays shows exceptional content volume” · 6 reviews
Negative “little to do after finishing the game” · 8 reviews

Variety 16% · Replayability 5%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 39% of reviews · Top 10% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +4.19 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “Good graphics with beautiful art style” · 27 reviews
Negative “low LOD and outdated graphics despite aging reasonably well” · 1 review

Audio 21%

Playing with others, the community and servers

Not enough data — only 6% of reviews mention this.

Playing together +1.09 · Fun of playing with friends, teammates, or rivals

Community 0% · Servers & Connection 0%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 3% of reviews · Top 30% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing +0.04 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Negative “only worth buying on sale, especially if you have phobias” · 3 reviews

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

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 16% of reviews · Top 50% of the games we've analyzed

Stability -0.17 · Crashes, freezes, save loss, and game-breaking bugs
Negative “lost progress twice due to no auto-save feature” · 22 reviews

Performance 4% · Developer support 5%

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

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