CasualSports
Backyard Baseball '97
Hooks you almost right away
Gets good by 1h almost every game dips in hours 2–3
Fully opens up by 5h rated like by long-time players
Started playing 100% of owners
Steam reviews 97% positive of 2,308
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 13 reviews are negative (8%); after 5h it's 1 in 85 (1%).
- Fully opens up by hour 5.
- The opening is criticised less than in 94% of games we track.
- 100% 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 2,339 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 296 reviews: 8.9h for positive, 4.1h 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 (99.9% 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 (25)
- Not Just a Collector Launch the game. 100%
- Strike Out! Strike out your first batter. 88%
- Double Trouble Hit your first double. 74%
- Slap Danger Hit your first home run. 69%
- Strike Chief Strike out 10 batters. 52%
- Seasoned to Taste Win your first season game. 51%
- Triple Ripple Hit your first triple. 49%
- Walker Walker Get walked while at bat. 45%
- Home Run Prince Hit 10 home runs. 28%
- Grand Slammer Score a grand slam. 23%
- Strike Monarch Strike out 50 batters. 19%
- Out of This World Smash a 600-foot home run. 13%
- All City, All Kitty Make it to the all-city playoff series. 11%
- Playoff Champ Win the all-city playoff pennant. 11%
- Tournament Maestro Win the Super Entire Nation Tournament. 9.3%
- Home Run King Hit 50 home runs. 8.5%
- Master of the Universe Conquer the Universe Tournament and tour the world. 7.8%
- Splash Zone Land a splashy home run. 5.0%
- Grand Slambites Hit 5 grand slams. 3.8%
- Dumpster Dive Hit a home run into a dumpster. 3.3%
- Strike Emperor Strike out 250 batters. 1.6%
- Grand Slamcakes Hit 20 grand slams. 0.7%
- Home Run Overlord Hit 250 home runs. 0.7%
- Tin Can Takedown Hit a home run out of Tin Can Alley without using a power-up. 0.7%
- Grand Slamwich Hit 50 grand slams. 0.5%
Steam page Updated: 2026-10-20.