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FTL: Faster Than Light

Subset Games

Quick read

FTL: Faster Than Light is a space roguelike: you command one ship across eight sectors, jump from beacon to beacon, and manage crew, power and weapons in fights you can pause at any moment.

What kind of game is it?

Each jump brings a text event, a shop or a fight. In combat you pause, route power between shields, engines and weapons, and send the crew to put out fires and repel boarders. The rebel fleet advances behind the ship, so every detour for scrap is a gamble.

Who is it for?

For players who enjoy losing a ship to one bad decision and starting over at once.

How it plays

Loop: Expanding a base
Sessions: Medium sessions
Progression: Unlocks between runs
Players: Single-player
Structure: Roguelike
Tone: Tense · 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.

Release

released

2012-09-14

Review score

95.1%

Checked 26 Sept 2026.

Steam positive percent.

Review count

78,837

Checked 26 Sept 2026.

Store price

€9.99

Checked 26 Sept 2026.

Languages

Demo

Early Access

Players

Single-player

How many people play FTL: Faster Than Light?

Estimates from public Steam data, not figures from the studio. Ranges, not exact numbers.

Estimated copies

2M – 4.3M

Steam reviews × 25 to 55. For a free game: players, not sales.

All-time peak players

18,821

Most people playing at the same moment, per SteamCharts.

Average players, Aug 2026

954

Peak that month: 1,446.

Median playtime

35.7 h

Half of 300 recent reviewers played 13.5–95.1 h. 3% under 2 h.

Players over time

Sept 2023Aug 2026

Where the players are

Languages of the last 300 Steam reviews. A proxy for regions, not a country split.

English73%
Simplified Chinese11%
Russian5%
French3%
Japanese2%
German1%

Steam data checked 4 Oct 2026

What makes it different?

The whole game fits on one screen: a cut-away view of the ship, its rooms and its crew. A fight is won by choosing which system to hit and which one to repair first.

Core mechanics

How it scores

The fantasy: Mastery and Exploration. Our scores out of 100, separate from Steam reviews.

Mechanical depthEstimate

84 / 100

Strategy depthEstimate

88 / 100

Run varianceEstimate

84 / 100

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Related games

Nearby games. Not always a direct substitute.

Shared: Procedural generation, Permadeath, Roguelike, Roguelite

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Genre / subgenre

Steam genre: Indie / Simulation / Strategy.

Related rankings

Sources

Store price checked 26 Sept 2026.

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