Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Give it 5 hours
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 3 reviews are negative (40%); after 5h it's 1 in 6 (17%).
- 52% of players who start reach the ending.
- The biggest drop-off is between “Rewrite reality for the first time.” and “Make sure Dr. Meadows can take another look at the skies.”: from 87% to 56% of starters.
- 78% of owners got the first achievement.
When it gets good
Share of positive reviews by how many hours the reviewer had played when writing the review.
before it gets good opening up fully opened up
Based on all 11,062 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 296 reviews: 4.3h for positive, 4h for negative. Almost every game is rated lower in the first 2–3 hours: that window includes refunds and quick first impressions. What matters is how deep the dip is and how fast the game recovers.
Where players quit
Share of players who started the game and reached each story milestone. 100% is the most common achievement (78.2% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Escape the Taken to the motel. You reached the relative safety of the motel. 100%
- Rewrite reality for the first time. You rewrote reality and brought down the satellite. 87% −13
- Make sure Dr. Meadows can take another look at the skies. You secured the coolant tanks at the observatory. Most players quit here 56% −31
- Rewrite reality for the last time. You used Mr. Scratch’s own trap to destroy him. 52% −4
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (12)
story milestone ending side
- Escape the Taken to the motel. You reached the relative safety of the motel. 100%
- Rewrite reality for the first time. You rewrote reality and brought down the satellite. 87%
- Make sure Dr. Meadows can take another look at the skies. You secured the coolant tanks at the observatory. 56%
- Rewrite reality for the last time. You used Mr. Scratch’s own trap to destroy him. 52%
- Take out two Splitter spawns with a single shot. You took out two Splitter spawns with a single shot. 37%
- Survive until dawn in any Arcade Mode level. You made it through the night and enjoyed a nice sunrise in one of the Arcade levels. 24%
- Find all of the manuscript pages. You got every manuscript page in the game. 16%
- Survive an Arcade level using nothing but the flashlight and handheld flares. You survived an Arcade level using nothing but the flashlight and handheld flares. 10%
- Get a six-minute survivor streak and over 100,000 points in an Arcade level. You got a six-minute survivor streak and over 100,000 points in an Arcade level. 8.1%
- Unlock all of the Nightmare Arcade Mode levels. You have unlocked all of the Nightmare Arcade Mode levels. 7.9%
- Defeat 2,000 Taken. You have defeated 2,000 Taken. 7.8%
- Get 70,000 points in any Nightmare Arcade level. You got 70,000 points in a Nightmare Arcade level. 7.8%