Action
Duke Nukem Forever
Give it 10 hours
Gets good by 10h then rated almost like by veterans
Fully opens up by 15h rated like by long-time players
Started playing 89% of owners
Steam reviews 69% positive of 11,671
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 2 reviews are negative (49%); after 15h it's 1 in 6 (16%).
- Fully opens up by hour 15.
- The opening is criticised more than in 77% of games we track.
- The biggest drop-off is between “One-Eyed Freak” (Defeat the Cycloid) and “Pit Champion” (Defeat the Battlelord in Las Vegas): from 100% to 56% of starters.
- 89% 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 11,738 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 298 reviews: 9.7h 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 (89.1% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- One-Eyed Freak Defeat the Cycloid 100%
- Pit Champion Defeat the Battlelord in Las Vegas Most players quit here 56% −44
- Not Bad for a Human Defeat the Alien Queen 42% −14
- A Good Dam Fight Defeat the Battlelord on the Hoover Dam 33% −9
- Octacide Defeat the Octaking 29% −4
- Beating the One-Eyed Worm Defeat the Energy Leech 26% −3
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (62)
story milestone ending side
- One-Eyed Freak Defeat the Cycloid 100%
- Drawrings Doodle something on the whiteboard in SP 97%
- Flagon of Chuckles Drink a beer in SP 89%
- Extermination Kill 50 aliens 85%
- Juiced Take steroids in SP 82%
- Nobody Likes a Whiner Knock out the talent at the talk show 79%
- Annihilation Kill 100 aliens 69%
- Natural Disaster 3x Kill 3 aliens at once 63%
- Pit Champion Defeat the Battlelord in Las Vegas 56%
- Big Guns, Big Ships Blow up 5 enemy gunships or dropships 51%
- Nuclear Devastation Kill 250 aliens 51%
- Baron von Nukem Shoot down 20 alien fighters 47%
- Not Bad for a Human Defeat the Alien Queen 42%
- Dead Useful Kill 10 aliens with environmental explosives 41%
- On the Noggin' Kill 30 aliens with headshots 41%
- Turd Burglar Find and steal a piece of poo 40%
- Road Rage Kill 15 aliens with the monster truck 37%
- Full Body Tourettes Get knocked down 10 times 35%
- He's Got a Hologram! Use a Holoduke in SP 35%
- A Good Dam Fight Defeat the Battlelord on the Hoover Dam 33%
- I Need a Towel Get hit by 10 Pregnator bombs 31%
- Octacide Defeat the Octaking 29%
- Noms Eat 10 pieces of food during the SP campaign 27%
- Beating the One-Eyed Worm Defeat the Energy Leech 26%
- Piece of Cake Complete the SP campaign on Easy Difficulty 26%
- Fork the Pork Kill 6 aliens with the forklift 24%
- Judge, Jury, Executioner Execute 20 aliens 22%
- Sticky Bomb Like You! Put a Trip Mine on a live alien 22%
- Lots of Whacking Win a game of Alien Abortion in the strip club 22%
- Substance Abuser Drink beer while on steroids or vice-versa in SP 22%
- Hippy-Stomper Foot stomp 12 aliens 21%
- Sunday, Black Sunday Shoot down the blimp above the stadium 20%
- Let's Rock Complete the SP campaign on Normal Difficulty 18%
- Duke Angry, Duke Smash! Kill 15 aliens with melee attacks while on steroids 18%
- Tosser... in the Literal Sense Kill 10 aliens with tossed objects 13%
- Special Thanks Watch the credits all the way through 11%
- I Need a Date Look at every page of a calendar in SP 10%
- Trapper Kill 10 aliens with Trip Mines 9.3%
- Freeze Well! Kill 15 frozen aliens 8.8%
- Air-Duke Win air hockey with a score of 7-0 in the strip club 7.7%
- Heart to Heart Finish Doctor Proton 5.7%
- Bloody Red Rover Kill 30 enemies with the moon rover 5.1%
- Hedonist, not Misogynist Discover and reject the video game that lets you slap women 4.9%
- Another Piece of Cake Beat the DLC campaign on Easy Difficulty 4.9%
- Threesome Kill 3 enemies within 3 seconds with the Impregnader 4.8%
- Party Animal Drink all of the beers in the strip club 4.6%
- Gunslinger Carry the gold pistol through the whole SP campaign 4.6%
- Come Get Some Complete the SP campaign on Hard Difficulty 4.5%
- Let's Rock Out Beat the DLC campaign on Normal Difficulty 4.2%
- Companion Barrel Unlock the secret closet at the end of the Forkstop 3.6%
- Balls of Steel Earn a 1,000,000 pinball score in SP 3.3%
- Passive Aggressive Let 20 enemies die by someone else's hand 3.1%
- I Am All That Is Man Discover all ego cap rewards 2.9%
- Bucket Head Find all 3 helmets in the SP campaign 2.8%
- Pescaphobe Kill all of the catfish in the underwater level 2.5%
- Call Waiting Listen to all phone messages 2.5%
- Damn, I'm Good Complete the SP campaign on Insane Difficulty 2.2%
- Come Get a Little More Beat the DLC campaign on Hard Difficulty 2.2%
- Bubble Buster Kill 10 expanded enemies with melee attacks 2.0%
- I Am All That Is Man - Again! Discover all Ego cap rewards in the DLC campaign 2.0%
- Scientits Earn a 1,000,000 pinball score on the Scientits pinball machine 1.9%
- Damn, I'm REALLY Good Beat the DLC campaign on Expert Difficulty 1.7%
Steam page Updated: 2026-10-18.