Strategy
Ark Nova
Give it 1 hour
Gets good by 1h almost every game dips in hours 2–3
Started playing 68% of owners
Steam reviews 95% positive of 933
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours almost 1 in 3 reviews are negative (30%); after 15h it's 1 in 25 (4%).
- Few early reviews, so this is a rough estimate.
- Only 68% of owners have even the first achievement — the rest barely played.
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 942 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 299 reviews: 17.6h for positive, 9.2h 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 (67.6% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
Story milestones aren't labeled yet; all achievements are listed below.
All achievements (31)
- Benefactor Make 5 or more donations in a single game 100%
- Expert Planner Score a single enclosure with 3 different kiosks 97%
- Conservationist Win a game with more than 20 conservation 93%
- Researcher Have more than 5 research icons in play 91%
- Popularity Get to the top of the reputation track 91%
- Warm and Fuzzy Fill a Petting Zoo enclosure with animals 82%
- Mega Zoo Fill your entire zoo 79%
- Well Connected Fill all your partner zoo and university slots 76%
- All Hands Place all four workers in a single round 73%
- Feather and Scale Build both a Reptile House and Large Bird Aviary in a single game 69%
- Aquatic Have 6 or more water icons in your zoo in a single game 55%
- Zoo Academy Complete the Tutorial 53%
- Hug Enthusiast Afflict opponents with Constriction 5 times 52%
- Wealthy Generate 50 or more income in a single break 51%
- Venomous Afflict opponents with Venom 5 times 49%
- Wildlife Rehabilitator Release 15 animals into the wild 47%
- Diversification Have one of every animal type and continent icon in play 45%
- Thief Steal from opponents using Pilfer 5 times 45%
- Rocky Have 6 or more rock icons in your zoo in a single game 43%
- Hypnotist Use Hypnosis on opponents 5 times 31%
- Competitor Win an online game 28%
- Challenger Complete all normal challenges 15%
- Unfair Advantage Defeat an unfair difficulty AI 14%
- Ultimate Challenger Complete all hard challenges 8.9%
- Resilient Win a game with a malus 8.6%
- Expert Maneuver Defeat an expert difficulty AI 6.8%
- Ultimate Unfair Advantage Defeat three unfair difficulty AI in a single game 6.2%
- Ultimate Competitor Win 25 online games 4.3%
- Legendary Feat Defeat a legendary difficulty AI 3.7%
- Ultimate Expert Maneuver Defeat three expert difficulty AI in a single game 3.6%
- Ultimate Legendary Feat Defeat three legendary difficulty AI in a single game 2.1%
Steam page Updated: 2026-10-21.