When does TIS-100 get good?

Hooks you almost right away. In the first 2 hours 1 in 9 reviews are negative (11%); after 7h it's 1 in 85 (1%). Fully opens up by hour 4.

How many players finish TIS-100?

3% of players who start reach the ending.

All games

IndieSimulation

TIS-100

Jul 20, 2015 Steam: Overwhelmingly Positive

Hooks you almost right away

Gets good by 1h almost every game dips in hours 2–3

Fully opens up by 4h rated like by long-time players

Reach the ending 3% of players who started

Started playing 91% of owners

Steam reviews 97% positive of 4,124

What the data shows

In the first 2 hours 1 in 9 reviews are negative (11%); after 7h it's 1 in 85 (1%).
Fully opens up by hour 4.
The opening is criticised less than in 89% of games we track.
3% of players who start reach the ending.
Most players drop off before “100_PERCENT_V1” (Solve every puzzle in the TIS-100 SEGMENT MAP): only 3% of starters get there.
90% 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 4,140 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 296 reviews: 8.1h for positive, 2.8h 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 (90.5% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.

Started playing 100%
100_PERCENT_V1 Solve every puzzle in the TIS-100 SEGMENT MAP. Most players quit here 3% −97

story milestone ending biggest drop-off

Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.

All achievements (10)

story milestone ending side

RTFM View the TIS-100 manual. 100%
PARALLELIZE Solve SIGNAL AMPLIFIER in fewer than 100 cycles. 21%
BUSY_LOOP Solve SELF-TEST DIAGNOSTIC in over 100,000 cycles. 13%
HALT_AND_CATCH_FIRE Crash the TIS-100 with the hidden opcode. 11%
NO_BACKUP Solve SEQUENCE COUNTER without using the SWP instruction. 9.4%
UNCONDITIONAL Solve SIGNAL COMPARATOR without using the JGZ, JLZ, JEZ, or JNZ instructions. 7.8%
ILLEGAL_EAGLE Find and solve the hidden puzzle. 3.6%
100_PERCENT_V1 Solve every puzzle in the TIS-100 SEGMENT MAP. 3.2%
NO_MEMORY Solve SEQUENCE REVERSER without writing any values to a stack memory node. 3.1%
100_PERCENT_V2 Solve every puzzle in the TIS-NET DIRECTORY. 1.3%

Steam page Updated: 2026-10-19.