Summary
- The Long Dark is 90% off on Steam, marking its lowest price ever at $3.49.
- The discount is available until May 1, 2025.
- Despite being 8 years old, The Long Dark is still widely touted as one of the best hardcore open-world survival games ever made.
The Long Dark is currently 90% off on Steam, dropping to its lowest-ever price by some margin. Steam users have until early May 2025 to take advantage of this deal.
August 1 will mark the eighth anniversary of The Long Dark's release, which arrived following nearly three years' worth of early access. While many conceptually similar titles have hit the market before and since, The Long Dark is still widely considered as one of the best hardcore survival games ever conceived. This reputation is reflected in its "Very Positive" user rating on Steam, which is currently based on a substantial sample of 96,630 player impressions.
8 Survival Games For Players Who Love The Long Dark
If you're craving a similar experience to the survival challenges of The Long Dark, you'll want to check out these similar survival game experiences.
The Steam version of The Long Dark received a 90% discount in late April 2025, dropping to $3.49. Previously, the game's best discount dated all the way back to 2016, when it was a $19.99 title temporarily reduced to $6.79. After leaving early access in 2017, The Long Dark received a permanent $15 price hike, though Hinterland Studio eventually reverted it back to $19.99 in late 2022. While officially classified as a "weekend deal," this newly launched discount will be live until next Thursday, May 1.
Is The Long Dark Still Worth Playing in 2025?
Although survival games are everywhere these days and The Long Dark was far from the first to tackle this genre, it still managed to excel in ways that make it worth playing even in 2025. Its combination of harsh survival mechanics, naturalistic horror, and a post-apocalyptic storyline made for a compelling experience requiring players to pay attention and rewarding them for doing so. The game also succeeded in differentiating itself with a grounded setting free of supernatural threats like zombies—a common genre trope. Instead, the main and only threat in The Long Dark is Mother Nature.
Though much of the game's popularity stems from its harsh gameplay, The Long Dark offers multiple difficulty levels, with the lowest providing a fairly stress-free experience that lets players enjoy the story without facing insurmountable obstacles. Those who do enjoy a good challenge can also test their mettle in Survival Mode and see just how long they can stay alive before the titular long dark inevitably claims them.
The so-called Wintermute campaign that constitutes The Long Dark's story mode is still missing its fifth and final episode. While this chapter doesn't yet have a release date or even a release window, Hinterland has confirmed it will launch at no extra cost. In the meantime, The Long Dark may see a few more discounts, but the chances of it dropping below the current $3.49 price in the foreseeable future appear slim.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 77 /100 Critics Rec: 70%
- Released
- August 1, 2017
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Blood, Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Hinterland Studio
- Publisher(s)
- Hinterland Studio
- Engine
- Unity
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
