The best real-time with pause indie games, ranked by reviews

Data report Built from live indielist data on 2026-09-07. Rankings update as data changes.

indielist tracks 8 real-time with pause indie games on Steam, holding 92,859 reviews at an average of 87% positive. This list ranks them by Steam review count, the most reliable public sales proxy, with a white-box sales estimate behind every title. The most reviewed is FTL: Faster Than Light with 62,676 reviews. Figures are tracked by indielist; sales numbers are estimates that each expand into their full formula.

The ranking

1. FTL: Faster Than Light · 62,676 reviews · 95% positive · 2012
2. Door Kickers 2: Task Force North · 12,296 reviews · 96% positive · 2025
3. Steel Division 2 · 8,053 reviews · 79% positive · 2019
4. Crying Suns · 3,147 reviews · 86% positive · 2019
5. Tower of Time · 2,320 reviews · 82% positive · 2018
6. Airborne Kingdom · 2,104 reviews · 87% positive · 2022
7. Laysara: Summit Kingdom · 1,414 reviews · 82% positive · 2026
8. Airborne Empire · 849 reviews · 87% positive · 2026

How this list is built

Games are ranked by Steam review count, the most reliable public proxy for sales when actual figures are private. Each title links to its indielist page, where the white-box sales estimate expands into the full Boxleiter formula, so you can audit the number rather than trust a black box. Review counts come from Steam; sales figures are estimates, not official sales data.

Want the underlying estimate for your own game? Try the sales estimator, or browse the full game directory.