When does Nuclear Throne get good?

Hooks you almost right away. In the first 2 hours 1 in 6 reviews are negative (16%); after 20h it's 1 in 45 (2%). Fully opens up by hour 20.

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Nuclear Throne

Dec 5, 2015 Steam: Overwhelmingly Positive

Hooks you almost right away

Gets good by 3h almost every game dips in hours 2–3

Fully opens up by 20h rated like by long-time players

Started playing 85% of owners

Steam reviews 96% positive of 19,863

What the data shows

In the first 2 hours 1 in 6 reviews are negative (16%); after 20h it's 1 in 45 (2%).
Fully opens up by hour 20.
The opening is criticised less than in 80% of games we track.
The game has no story achievements, so drop-off points can't be measured.
85% 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 19,956 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 295 reviews: 25h for positive, 16.5h 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 (85.1% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.

This game has no story achievements, so we can't tell where players quit.

All achievements (59)

story milestone ending side

Melting Unlocked Die. 100%
Bandit Stopper Defeat Big Bandit. 93%
Eyes Unlocked Reach 2-1. 92%
Plant Unlocked Reach 3-1. 86%
Dog Owner Defeat Big Dog. 65%
Robot Unlocked Reach 5-1. 57%
Sincere Apologies We hereby sincerely apologize. 51%
Hunter Killer Defeat Lil Hunter. 43%
Steroids Unlocked Reach 6-1. 39%
Y.V. Unlocked Reach 3-?. 37%
Horror Unlocked Defeat Horror. 33%
Good Find Unlock a Golden Weapon as any character. 32%
Chicken Unlocked Reach 5-?. 26%
Throne Sitter Defeat the Nuclear Throne. 24%
MMMMMMHMMM! Reach 2-? as Eyes. 24%
Rogue Unlocked Reach the Nuclear Throne. 24%
The Struggle Continues Loop the game. 17%
Rebel Unlocked Loop past the Nuclear Throne. 17%
Crown Life Unlock a Crown as any character. 17%
6e 69 63 65 Eat a Hyper Weapon as Robot. 16%
Advanced Sitter Defeat Throne II. 16%
Ultra Time Reach Level Ultra as any character. 15%
Crystal Can Shield Reach 4-? as Crystal. 15%
Frog Slayer Defeat Mom. 11%
Not Bad Reach 7-3 on a Daily. 9.2%
Verified Unlock a Golden Weapon for every character. 9.0%
Crystal Smasher Defeat Hyper Crystal. 8.5%
Blood Blood Blood Reach the Nuclear Throne in under 10 minutes as Plant. 8.3%
Go Hard Unlock Hard Mode. 6.9%
Techno Killer Defeat the Technomancer. 6.8%
Everything Hurts Reach the Nuclear Throne without Rhino Skin or Strong Spirit as Melting. 6.5%
Forget The Old Days Defeat Mom as Rebel. 6.5%
Fish Can Roll Loop as every character. 6.1%
Thriller Defeat Hyper Crystal as Horror. 5.9%
Science Defeat the Technomancer as Steroids. 5.4%
Way Of The Chicken Reach 2-1 on Hard Mode as Chicken. 4.9%
Never Look Back Defeat Captain as Rogue. 4.5%
The Struggle Is Over Defeat Captain. 4.5%
Frog Zone Play as Frog. 3.9%
Gunz God Reach Y.V.'s Crib. 3.8%
Biggest Bandit Defeat 1000 bandits in total. 3.8%
Vault Raider Unlock all Crowns as any character. 2.9%
Crystal Can Handle This Survive over 100 damage as Crystal. 2.8%
Impossible Sit on the Nuclear Throne as headless Chicken. 2.6%
Appreciate Revolvers Reach the Nuclear Throne without picking up any weapons as Steroids. 2.2%
63 72 75 6e 63 68 79 Eat the Rusty Revolver as Robot. 2.2%
HHMMMM! Reach the Nuclear Throne without firing a shot as Eyes. 2.0%
Round And Handsome Carry 3 Golden Weapons as Cuz. 1.9%
Forgiveness Don’t defeat Lil Hunter as Rogue. 1.9%
Good Riddance Unlock a Golden Disc Gun or Golden Nuke Launcher. 1.6%
Molten Have 12 mutations as Melting. 1.6%
Thanks Gun God Defeat a Gun God. 1.5%
Retirement Unlock all B-skins. 1.3%
KILL KILL KILL BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD. 1.3%
Unstoppable Reach Level Ultra as Skeleton. 1.2%
Ultra Mutant Get 100% of the unlocks. 1.2%
Drama Reach the I.D.P.D. Headquarters with 3 or fewer mutations as Horror. 1.1%
Strapped Carry 6 cursed weapons as Cuz. 0.8%
Amateur Hour Is Over Defeat every boss with the Black Sword. 0.7%

Steam page Updated: 2026-10-18.