DLCOuter Wilds - Original SoundtrackLoading store offers
Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds is for solo players who want to explore an open solar system without being handed a fixed solution. Time-sensitive locations, natural disasters, and strange signals give its discovery a distinct identity. On Steam PC, the game has full controller support and English full audio with subtitles. The current low makes ≈ $9.38 at 
CDKeys especially appealing when you want a focused, curious adventure and its confirmed interface languages suit your reading preferences. With ≈ $15.61 saved against Steam’s $24.99, ≈ $9.38 at CDKeys suits solo players who want exploration and self-directed mysteries.
All-time low ~ $9.75across Steam & third-party storesat the recorded all-time low
Loading store offers
Wishlist price
Set a target to receive an email when an eligible offer in your selected region is at or below that amount.
Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $7.512026-07Current Low Across Stores~ $12.49Kinguinvs. Historical Low+66%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About Outer Wilds
Explore an open solar system trapped in an endless time loop, piecing together its mysteries for yourself. Hidden locations change as time passes, while sand, collapses, and other hazards shape each expedition. Fly between planets, follow mysterious signals, decipher ancient writing, and use unusual tools. The Steam PC version supports single-player play and full controller support. The interface is available in Simplified Chinese, English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese-Brazil, Russian, Spanish-Latin America, Spanish, and Turkish, with English full audio and subtitles. 95%% positive reviews from 91,226 reviews. Released on June 18, 2020.
Credits
Developer
Mobius Digital
Publisher
Annapurna Interactive
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$7.512026-07-30 · KinguinBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes | — |
Show 10 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | Yes | Yes | — |
| German | Yes | Yes | — |
| Japanese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Korean | Yes | Yes | — |
| Polish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Portuguese-Brazil | Yes | Yes | — |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish-Latin America | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Turkish | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-11-10
02Before you buy
Mode and control
Single-player Steam PC adventure with full controller support.
Language and audio
The interface is available in {supportedLanguages}. Full audio is in English, with subtitles supported.
03Frequently asked questions
What is the core gameplay?
You explore a solar system trapped in an endless loop and connect clues for yourself.
Does the world change over time?
Yes. Time changes locations and hazards, making observation and timing important.
Does it support controllers?
Yes, the Steam PC version has full controller support.
9.0
Overall Score
Graphics6.5
Audio9.5
Gameplay9.5
Story9.5
Content8
“A 22-minute time-loop sci-fi puzzle adventure where knowledge is progress — a landmark for video games as an artistic medium in the 21st century.”
Our Verdict
## Overall
Commercial standing and award recognition
Outer Wilds launched on Epic Games Store and on PS4 and Xbox One consoles on May 30, 2019, with Steam release following on June 18, 2020. Steam user sentiment locked at Very Positive with over 81,000 cumulative reviews and roughly 90% recommendation rate. Mobius Digital hasn't publicly released sales figures, but community estimates put cumulative sales above 2 million units including the expansion. Award recognition is exceptional. The 2020 BAFTA Games Awards delivered three top awards — Best Game, Best Game Design, Best Original Property — the highest indie game recognition that year, beating AAA contenders including Death Stranding and Control. Polygon, Giant Bomb, Eurogamer, and The Guardian — four Western flagship media outlets — all named it 2019 Game of the Year, a four-way unanimous pick that is genuinely rare in the gaming industry. IGN at 8.4, GameSpot at 9.0, Metacritic composite at 85 — the score combination establishes industry recognition at the indie ceiling.
The Echoes of the Eye expansion sustained the high reception trajectory in 2021: Metacritic composite at 82, OpenCritic Mighty rating with 100% positive critic reviews, Steam at 90% recommendation, and a 2021 BAFTA nomination for Best Narrative. This "base-game-and-expansion-both-receiving-industry-top-recognition" achievement is rare in indie publishing history. Chinese coverage tracked nearly identical with Gamersky at 9.0, A9VG with its widely-shared long-form review titled "this may be the best sci-fi puzzle template," and persistent Bilibili and Zhihu discussion across six years.
Audience guidance, edition choice, and irreplaceable position
Target audience: players wanting pure curiosity-driven space exploration, players who can accept no-upgrade no-combat design, science-fiction puzzle enthusiasts. If the "22-minute time loop plus knowledge-equals-progress" design philosophy reads as appealing, if no-quest-list fully-self-directed exploration appeals, if 22-45 hours of repeatedly exploring a solar system that destroys itself every 22 minutes sounds engaging, this is the must-play sci-fi puzzle adventure of 2019-2026. Skip-list audience: players accustomed to traditional RPG upgrade-and-combat loops, players seeking fast-paced action, players impatient with repeated puzzle attempts should avoid this title. The "no-guidance plus no-upgrade plus 22-minute reset" experience is a genuine barrier across the first three hours — you'll feel lost, get disoriented, wonder "what should I be doing." If your core need is "play and feel rewarded immediately," go play Borderlands, SnowRunner, or Cyberpunk 2077 instead; if your need is "experience a sci-fi adventure unlike anything else in the medium," this is the correct lane.
Edition recommendation: base game USD 24.99 plus expansion USD 14.99 = USD 39.98 for the complete set. Steam historical discounts routinely hit 50% or more, with the full set frequently available around USD 20 — exceptional value within the indie space. Chinese player note: the game ships official simplified and traditional Chinese subtitle localization, and the Nomai translation text translates exceptionally well, but no Mandarin voiceover exists across any character dialogue (the original includes Japanese, English, German, and French language tracks).
Historical position and the irreplaceable line
Strip away commercial numbers and review scores, and what Outer Wilds leaves behind is "the landmark sci-fi puzzle adventure of the 21st century." It brought the 1990s Myst "pure curiosity-driven puzzle" philosophy into modern 3D engine territory, layering in 22-minute time loops, knowledge-equals-progress design, five dynamic planet systems, quantum physics puzzles, and other genuinely innovative gameplay mechanics. Across 2019-2026 sci-fi puzzle adventure releases, virtually every notable title's design DNA traces back to Outer Wilds: Twelve Minutes (2021) inherited the time-loop puzzle approach, Tunic (2022) inherited the knowledge-equals-progress philosophy, Returnal (2021) inherited the space time-loop concept. What's most irreplaceable isn't any single mechanic but the artistic achievement of "letting players experience a mourning-radiant sci-fi adventure through a video game" as such. The Chinese ACG community's collective spoiler protection phenomenon represents a rare instance of community-wide respect for a single work — everyone tacitly agrees this work's narrative experience cannot be stolen by spoilers. Bilibili, Zhihu, and Tieba discussion volume has held steady through six years without notable decline. The overall 9.0 score acknowledges the design philosophy originality (22-minute time loop plus knowledge equals progress), the narrative literary heights (Nomai archaeological narrative plus ending mourning radiance), and the music dimension's canonical status (Prahlow OST plus ending theme's two-tear effect), while honestly recording Unity indie graphics' specification ceiling (6.5 graphics is the relatively weakest dimension) and the absence of traditional replay mechanics as honest shortfalls. It's not 2019's most visually impressive title, and it isn't the highest-selling commercial release of the year, but it is 2019's most memorable video game and one of the 21st century's landmark statements about games as artistic medium.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
If you are reading this, STOP READING REVIEWS. Don't watch the let's plays, don't read the game articles, don't do anything. I went into this game knowing literally nothing about it. I was just saw it on the recommended page in the store, and was like, "huh. looks cool. sure." And you know what? That seemingly dumbass decision lead to one of the best experiences I've ever had playing a video game. Trust me, the less you know about this game going into it, the better of an experience you will have.Show moreShow less
25.9 hours at review1,869 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I backed and funded this game on Fig way back when because I liked to support developers who promised to support Linux. Without backers like me this game would not exist. Yet, when it released a year ago, Mobius and Annapurna screwed backers like me over by signing an exclusive deal with Epic. As we know, Epic hates Linux and does not work on Linux, so I could not play the game I had backed until a year after release. Now it has released on Steam, but still no Linux support to be seen. I've been screwed over by Mobius and Annapurna twice now. I have not tried yet if the game works properly via the Proton compatibility layer. But even if it does, and if I happen to like the game, I still wouldn't recommend it. Because I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone to buy a game from a developer/publisher who treat their customer, no supporters, backers, in that way.Show moreShow less
0.5 hours at review1,305 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
The worst thing about this game is that I can only play it for the first time once.Show moreShow less
22.7 hours at review1,225 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
While this is a great game, I cannot recommend that you support the developers. They took over $126,000 from backers, promising Mac and Linux releases, and then released on the EGS, delaying the Steam release for over a year. They knew full well that they were defrauding their backers by taking Epic's money, but they decided to double dip anyways. Don't support fraud.Show moreShow less
1.6 hours at review779 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
You are a smart person. You read reviews for games before you buy them, just to make sure you know what you're spending your money on. What you need to know about Outer Wilds that it is the worst game to get spoiled on, possibly ever. Anything and everything you learn before playing has the potential to harm your experience with it, and even the story's premise and basic gameplay mechanics are things that you do not want to get spoiled to. Yes, this makes Outer Wilds a difficult game to sell, but, trust me, it's a good one. There are negative reviews out there, sure, but a surprising amount of people say that this game is the best they've ever played, unironically. I can't explain why you'll like it, but there is a pretty good chance that you will. If you don't, you will most likely figure that out before the refund deadline. So, stop reading into it, and play this game. The risk of getting spoiled by other reviews is too high. If you aren't sold on it yet, then go ahead and keep reading — with caution.Show moreShow less
90.4 hours at review1,076 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I have a high tolerance bar for repetition, trial and error, and so on, but Outer Wilds really got to me in ways that few other games do. And that was the last thing I expected of it. Okay, there's a time loop, but they add more time limits on top through an oxygen meter, a fuel gauge, crumbling environments, sand pouring in to close off areas and various scheduled events -- almost every planet has an additional internal timer of some sort. Compounding this, the game doesn't shy away from immediate failure states, requiring you to start over and regularly wait out another timer. It is so punishing for no apparent reason other than to further gamify what otherwise largely amounts to a "walking sim". I sorely missed mechanics that mitigated repetition (beyond taking a power nap), which can be found in games as old as Majora's Mask or as recent as Minit. At times, it feels as if Outer Wilds is not confident that its ideas can be compelling enough to stand on their own without these layers of challenge. At a conceptual level, Outer Wilds does incredible things. However, my experience was that I was way into everything but playing it. I usually enjoy simply walking around in games like this -- exploration is fun to me in and of itself. Why they found it necessary to add pseudo-survival layers to it, I do not understand. It makes the play more explicitly gamey, sure, but the gauge and time management were not additive to me. I feel like there needed to be further incentives on the other end and preferably more than notes with lots of proper nouns in them. I spent roughly seventeen hours to complete the game and encountered around three explicit puzzles. I wanted a more meaningful drive to push forward beyond a trail of notes with some exposition; I hoped for more interesting moments rooted in gameplay as I got further, but what I got were largely... notes. There were also stunning environments, which normally I would've found sufficient, but, as I said, I felt unable to fully enjoy them because of doom clocks, survival layers and the specter of repetition. This also brings me to my greatest surprise: Outer Wilds doesn't really have puzzles as such, despite others describing it as a puzzle-exploration game. In my experience, it's mostly a quest to find a number of keys to open locks, whereby the keys are coded as knowledge (or, inaccurately, "clues"). Because that knowledge is often so singular in its use, there was little more puzzling needed than literally doing the thing a note told you to do. It rarely asks you to apply knowledge in creative ways and synthesize conclusions about mechanics on your own. That's what makes a puzzle to me -- not a binary state of being in the dark about something until learning exactly how it works. Sometimes, if the game hasn’t yet spelled it out a dozen times yet, you can get a little creative but more often than not the game won't give you the chance to, so the end result is a game generally wanting in what I expect of puzzles. The amount of times this game circles around a certain phenomenon that you could conceivably figure out within less than an hour of playing is emblematic of the game's puzzle philosophy. There is a general lack of confidence in the player’s interpretive abilities and an overeagerness to show you new cool stuff at the cost of a more organic mode of play. And while there's a case to be made that you can experiment in certain situations, that once again leads me back to my initial point about the time loop making it frustrating, because each attempt is going to be prefaced by the dead air of redoing the steps you took to get to wherever you were previously. Much of the game’s narrative is told through various types of notes that you pick up along your travels. An uninteresting and tired delivery system thereof, in my opinion, and the sheer number of notes you come across is overbearing. The time spent casually reading them also feels at odds with the sense of urgency otherwise pressing down on you, even though time stops as you do so -- a rare compromise for this game that begs the question why this wasn't extended to other areas of its design. Because the game has little sense of economy of information, I was grateful that the computer on your spaceship keeps track of notes and draws connections for you. Yet, I can imagine a version of this game that exercised more restraint and asked you to organically make those connections yourself. I think I may have enjoyed that more. But Outer Wilds often doesn't trust the player enough to allow for things like this. At a more fundamental level, the spaceship and character controls can be a pain, but, okay, it's space -- fine. Accurately confounding. There are also things like the button layout being unintuitive. For a game without seriously disruptive technical issues, too often it "felt" bad when playing. It made basic things more difficult than I wanted them to be when I was already prickly about friction elsewhere. There are many interesting concepts here, but for some reason it really makes it painful to get to them, and (the payoff of) cool concepts alone don't make a game for me. The "in between" needs to be compelling too. I think of experiences like The Witness, FEZ and The Stanley Parable in comparison to this, and they all have elements in common with Outer Wilds. Yet they have things like brevity or satisfying moment-to-moment mechanics to make for more well-rounded experiences. It has a bit of all of those games in its DNA, but Outer Wilds doesn't come together as neatly. The coup de grace to my goodwill was delivered by its pre-ending sequence, which is one of the most profoundly disruptive things I've played in a long time. It combines the two factors I disliked most about the game in a neat package: timers and instant death states. As a result, I couldn't quite settle into the ending the way I'd have wanted to. And those closing moments were truly inspired at times, evoking a pitch perfect sense of fear and awe of the unknown -- something the game has a general vibe of throughout and is its greatest achievement, and it really shines in the end. However, the meat of the game being so unpalatable to me wasn't offset by audiovisual spectacles like these. It didn't redeem, justify or override all of that suddenly. It's clear that players with different sensibilities than mine will get way more out of Outer Wilds, as evidenced by its overwhelmingly positive reception. I personally don't think it's a slam dunk of a game, and it has what I consider a number of deep issues that weren't addressed much in the reviews I had read. Hopefully this'll help some people make a more educated decision on whether this game is for them or at least help set expectations. Lastly, I should add that I didn't go into this knives out and ready to rip on the game for contrarian cool points. I genuinely thought this would be my jam, because it had all the signs it would be.Show moreShow less
10.7 hours at review524 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Outer Wilds is a generational game. It may even be a once in a lifetime kind of game. And although this may not be the case for everyone, from the accounts of some of my friends, it always seems to be a game you play right at the time in your life when you need it. This review is going to be a little personal, but I played Outer Wilds while my mom was dying from covid-19, and I beat it the night before she passed away, and I can never thank the developers for making a game which touched my heart so strongly. Outer Wilds starts out almost humble in a way. You can’t do anything but walk around and jump and talk to others. Yet it quickly snowballs into something quite magical. From launching your rocket to space for the first time, the story becomes not one of achieving space travel, but to saving the universe by uncovering its greatest mystery. And although it’s incredibly daunting and you don’t even know where to begin, somehow things just happen to fall into place, almost like magic. Outer Wilds’ story is a little hard to grasp when you focus on the details, and it plays into some abstractness for story-telling purposes, but it works perfectly for me. It’s a story filled with moments of immense joy, and sadness, and ultimately one of the best conclusions, if not the best, to any video game I’ve ever played. The lessons at the end of the game are presented so simply, so directly, but with such charm that I can’t imagine any other way of doing it. Outer Wilds is simply beautiful from a story point of view. I really wish I could say more, but Outer Wilds, maybe more than any game I’ve ever played, demands to be played as blind as possible. Outer Wilds’ gameplay consists of relatively simple platforming and exploration, carefully maneuvering through the world to find every last clue and piece of evidence to help put together the story. The way the game uses knowledge as its skill-check, instead of physical skill is incredible, and it’s been many, many years since I’ve seen puzzles integrated so well into gameplay. I may have never seen it integrated this well before, nor may I ever again. And the way the time causes nearly every aspect of the game to change is just brilliant. You don’t need a galaxy brain to beat Outer Wilds, but you can’t put it all together if you don’t start to fire the neurons a little bit either. It’s just all… perfect. Every clue is so masterfully crafted, every location so expertly designed, every hint so perfectly placed… it’s flooring, in a way. The art style is so brilliant, the music so incredible, the sounds so captivating, that it’s honestly astonishing that anybody couldn’t give this game a 9/10 or better. Its beauty is generational, and it reinforces some of life’s most important lessons: learn from your past… carry what you must to your future… leave what you can behind… take advantage of the time you have with those you love… and most importantly: from sad endings come new beautiful beginnings. 10/10Show moreShow less
24.4 hours at review837 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I'm not writing this review to be contrary, or to try and dump on something that I understand many, many people enjoyed, I just thought I'd add my review to better caution players who may be like me against buying something they might not get value out of. Honestly, I'm heartbroken that I don't enjoy this game. I heard all the rave reviews, and found the premise appealing, but within a few minutes of play I had the disheartening inkling that this game would be nothing but stressful for me. I stuck it out, nearly 20 hours worth, and honestly, while I liked elements of it, it never got gratifying enough to keep at it. To put it bluntly, the controls make me want to tear my hair out. Even after a long, long adjustment period, I simply went from "Hurl myself into the sun immediately every time I launch" to "You'll get where you're going, but have fun busting your skull open after fifteen minutes of trying to explore this fiddly platforming hellscape full of cacti for no apparent reason." I bobbled around everywhere like my spaceship was the unholy lovechild of the Mako from Mass Effect and a cursed bouncy castle. I didn't mind dying occasionally, I understand that's kind of the point, but I resented getting 90% of the way through a long convoluted section of platforming, choking on the last jump, and having to begin the loop all over again. Thinking about having to wedge my idiot jetpacked carcass through the same set of stressful maneuvers again for five new lines of dialogue was a bridge too far for me. The tipping point came when I waited ten real life minutes for an opportunity to open up, only to fudge a six foot jump, and fling myself into the sun instead. I have kids man. Every single second I get to play is a precious commodity, and every grain of my patience already spent. I just can't with this game, and I hate that. I imagine the story is very compelling, and rich, and that it really is a great experience for a lot of people, but if you aren't great with complex controls, or directions, or being burnt to a crisp in the belly of a star repeatedly, then this game may not be for you. This isn't a review to bash the game, it's just the review I wish I'd read before I bought it.Show moreShow less
19.9 hours at review394 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
You've seen the reviews. You've noticed the awards. Your friends are raving about Outer Wilds. And you're wondering, what's the big deal? But no one will say. They just tell you, “Play it.” So you play it. And yeah, the universe, this tiny solar system with its curious little planets, its gentle alien people, is instantly charming. The quality of the Newtonian physics engine quickly impresses. Hinted-at mysteries arouse curiosity. But, you’ll say, that’s been done before; what’s the big deal? Then the sun explodes, and the game starts over. You know this too. It’s in the trailers. It’s in the Steam pitch. The game starts over, and the only thing you carry over is the knowledge of the discoveries you’ve made. Turns out, that’s plenty. No lock-and-key puzzles here. You only follow your curiosity wherever it drives you, for 22 minutes at a time. And step after step, you understand new things that lead you to new realizations and new places, often strange, always interesting. And then you die, and the game starts over. And it’s brilliant. In Outer Wilds, the certainty of death is not a punishment: it’s a liberation. What do you have to fear? The sun is going to explode anyway. So you dive into that ocean, or you jump into that black hole, or you ride that collapsing spire all the way down, because what’s the worst that can happen? And Outer Wilds rewards you, more often than not, with new knowledge, deeper understanding, and, little by little, the unraveling of its mysteries. But still, you’ll ask one last time, what’s the big deal? Until, in the fullness of time, as you assemble the pieces of the knowledge puzzle, understanding dawns, with melancholy, with humility, and you know what you must do. You’ve got 22 minutes. It’s plenty. And as the credits finally roll, you sit back in your chair, blinking rapidly as your eyes moisten. And when someone next asks you, “Outer Wilds, what’s the big deal?”, you smile quietly, and you just tell them, “Play it.”Show moreShow less
41.3 hours at review760 people found this helpful
Received for free
Not recommendedSteam player
Outer Wilds is, in its own way, the Myst for a new generation. You're thrust into an unfamiliar environment and left to suss out the story mostly by interacting with a series of installations and artifacts scattered throughout a bunch of different worlds. And, much like Myst, it is remarkably inventive, intriguing, and fun to look at and explore, but actually playing it is a decidedly antagonistic experience that has no respect for the player's time. Credit where it's due: the environments are great and surprisingly unique, and there's a lot to enjoy here. But EVERY time something happens to screw you over, be it your fault, hazards being obscured to you, plain bad luck, you ran afoul of a "gotcha" with the environmental goings-on or level design, you ran out of time at a really unlucky moment, or need to turn the game off because there's no interrupt saves: you get to start over from the beginning. Which is fine as long as you're still exploring and finding new things, but the first time it happens while you've only half-explored a new area is rather off-putting. Moreso when accessing that area requires waiting around for a time-specific event. Extremely moreso when this starts becoming a regular occurrence. For a good several hours I was spending more time trying to get back to the points I had half-explored, or wait for timing-based events, than I could spend exploring or puzzle-solving -- and sometimes wasting even more time trying to retrace my steps, as most of the waypointing works on very "general area" hotspots, and the more specific waypoints you may occasionally be afforded usually only show up once you'll no longer have need of them. This was rapidly outweighing my enjoyment of things. I stuck with the game regardless, and finished it, and I have to say that as you move into endgame, more and more of the puzzles rely on extraordinarily obtuse, vague, or seemingly nonsensical logic, and there develops a growing tendency of attempts at the intended solution to a puzzle just not working for unclear reasons, giving no indication it was the intended solution, and leaving you to wonder what you're missing when you're not actually missing anything. Moreover, there's a borderline mandatory ability to quick-reset the game from the pause menu that you only unlock if you happen to explore some bonus dialogue options with a certain NPC that you'll likely have already exhausted your conversation topics with. I didn't get the most important timesaving function in the game until I was over 20 hours in. Frustrations on frustrations. In terms of presentation, concept, and unique moments of discovery, Outer Wilds knocks it out of the park. In terms of being technically sound, there are still controller issues, keyboard issues, framerate and optimization issues, and glitches that can partially disable controls or reduce your walking speed by 70% and persist until exiting the game. The puzzles range from brilliant, to smart but extremely fiddly, to overbearing and obtuse. Pound for pound, I don't regret playing it -- but at the same time, weighed against the pointless frustrations it saddled me with, I would just as soon have not played it at all. As a parting note, DO NOT trust the autopilot. I don't think I've ever seen a more malicious pathfinding system in my life, and it can and will kill you at the most inconvenient moment possible.Show moreShow less
3.8 hours at review391 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/14/2026.