Skip to content
indielist (beta)

The best story rich indie games, ranked by reviews

5 min read for players

story-richgenre-guidedata-reportrecommendations

Data report Assembled from live indielist data on 2026-06-06. Rankings update as data changes.

indielist tracks 199 story rich indie games on Steam, holding 5,889,812 reviews at an average of 92% 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 Hollow Knight with 487,097 reviews. Figures are tracked by indielist; sales numbers are modeled estimates that each expand into their full formula.

The ranking

  1. Hollow Knight · 487,097 reviews · 97% positive · 2017
  2. Undertale · 291,647 reviews · 96% positive · 2015
  3. Hades · 281,339 reviews · 98% positive · 2020
  4. It Takes Two · 212,497 reviews · 95% positive · 2021
  5. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 · 175,066 reviews · 95% positive · 2025
  6. Kingdom Come: Deliverance · 139,812 reviews · 84% positive · 2018
  7. Ori and the Will of the Wisps · 134,102 reviews · 97% positive · 2020
  8. DAVE THE DIVER · 133,203 reviews · 97% positive · 2023
  9. Black Mesa · 132,752 reviews · 95% positive · 2020
  10. Inscryption · 131,971 reviews · 97% positive · 2021
  11. Celeste · 126,861 reviews · 97% positive · 2018
  12. Life is Strange - Episode 1 · 122,787 reviews · 96% positive · 2015
  13. Disco Elysium - The Final Cut · 114,817 reviews · 93% positive · 2019
  14. Hades II · 110,808 reviews · 96% positive · 2025
  15. Subnautica: Below Zero · 97,547 reviews · 90% positive · 2021
  16. Firewatch · 91,732 reviews · 91% positive · 2016
  17. This War of Mine · 88,714 reviews · 94% positive · 2014
  18. Outer Wilds · 85,305 reviews · 96% positive · 2020
  19. GRIS · 82,436 reviews · 96% positive · 2018
  20. OMORI · 78,134 reviews · 97% positive · 2020

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 modeled estimates, not official sales data.

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