Darkest Dungeon®
Red Hook Studios
Darkest Dungeon is a gothic turn-based RPG: you send a party of four heroes into dungeons, watch their stress as closely as their health, and lose them for good when they die.
What kind of game is it?
Expeditions into dungeons assembled for each visit, fought in turn-based battles where a hero's place in the line decides which skills work. Heroes build up stress; past a limit they break, turn on the party or die of a heart attack. Between expeditions, the town heals, trains and replaces them.
Who is it for?
For players who accept losing a favourite hero and carry on with the next recruit.
- Loop
- Expanding a base
- Sessions
- Long sessions
- Progression
- Unlocks between runs
- Players
- Single-player
- Structure
- Roguelite
- Tone
- Dark · Brutal
Game DNA
What playing it feels like, out of 100. Our reading, separate from Steam reviews.
- Progression62
Estimate
- Social18
Estimate
Key Steam facts
Steam store figures, checked 26 Sept 2026.
2016-01-19
Checked 26 Sept 2026.
Steam positive percent.
Checked 26 Sept 2026.
Checked 26 Sept 2026.
How many people play Darkest Dungeon®?
Estimates from public Steam data, not figures from the studio. Ranges, not exact numbers.
Steam reviews × 25 to 55. For a free game: players, not sales.
Most people playing at the same moment, per SteamCharts.
Peak that month: 12,496.
Half of 300 recent reviewers played 22.4–132.9 h. 3% under 2 h.
Players over time
Where the players are
Languages of the last 300 Steam reviews. A proxy for regions, not a country split.
- English44%
- Simplified Chinese16%
- Russian8%
- Korean6%
- Portuguese (Brazil)5%
- Spanish (Spain)5%
Darkest Dungeon® players also play
Games played for more than an hour in 47 public Steam libraries of recent reviewers. Each one is played by at least 4 of these players and is more common here than across all libraries we read (× how much).
- Darkest Dungeon II19% · ×15.9
- Slay the Spire36% · ×4.3
- Slay the Spire 223% · ×4.5
- Volcano Princess13% · ×10.6
- Don't Starve Together43% · ×1.9
- Limbus Company13% · ×5.6
- DARK SOULS: REMASTERED19% · ×3
- Lobotomy Corporation | Monster Management Simulation11% · ×6.8
- Monster Hunter: World28% · ×2.1
- Library Of Ruina9% · ×8.6
Steam data checked 4 Oct 2026
What makes it different?
Stress works as a second health bar: a hero can survive every blow and still break down mid-dungeon. A narrator comments on each victory and each loss, so every campaign reads like a grim chronicle.
Core mechanics
How it scores
The fantasy: Survival and Horror tension. Our scores out of 100, separate from Steam reviews.
Similar games
Full games-like page →
Related games
Nearby games. Not always a direct substitute.
Related rankings
Store price checked 26 Sept 2026.
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