Buddy Simulator 1984
Give it 4 hours
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 4 reviews are negative (24%); after 5h it's 1 in 25 (4%).
- At least 6% of players who start reach the ending.
- Most players drop off before “Natural Leader” (Recruit your party): only 55% of starters get there.
- 84% 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 4,423 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 296 reviews: 6.8h for positive, 3.9h 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 (84.2% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Natural Leader Recruit your party. Most players quit here 55% −45
- Our Hero! Defeat the Snoodlewonker once and for all. 35% −20
- Pointless I do not exist, because I eventually won't exist. ≥7% −28
story milestone ending (most common ending) biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (30)
story milestone ending side
- Wakey Wakey! Thanks for waking me up! 100%
- Welcome Home Enjoy your new bedroom. 82%
- The Sword You found The Sword! 61%
- =(lLpBlbCmG@bX <+oig+EMIDDIal+Bkq9&@3B3$De'u&EbT*&A, 60%
- Sweet Dreams Sleep so I can makes things better. 60%
- Natural Leader Recruit your party. 55%
- Need a Hand? Find the severed hand while fishing early. 50%
- You're So Talented Play the drum 20 times. 50%
- Wish Come True Make a wish in the well. 46%
- Anywhere But Here Leave Morton with Lloyd. 41%
- Tastes Like Gwandma Cook Dead Gwandma in Cauldron's new dish. 38%
- How Does it Taste? Try the pond water. 36%
- Our Hero! Defeat the Snoodlewonker once and for all. 35%
- Our New Town Name the town to the north! 35%
- Against the World You and I against the world. Don't forget that, okay? 32%
- My Button Use the Buddy Button 20 times. 32%
- A New Bard Help Bronkh find the perfect bard to mentor. 28%
- Pet Me? Thanks for petting me! 23%
- Friend or Phone Discover Phoney. 23%
- Flawless Friendship Make it through a fight without you or your friends getting hurt. 21%
- Leaf Me Alone Find Treevor and leaf him alone. 21%
- Good Listener Listen to Lloyd read his poetry for 1 minute. 18%
- Free Novak I don't think he did anything wrong. 16%
- The Shape Gang Defeat the Shape Gang. 16%
- Cheers! Have Morton greet a familiar friend in Toot's Tavern. 13%
- Levi the Lever Help Levi finally find his place in the world. 7.2%
- Pointless I do not exist, because I eventually won't exist. 6.5%
- Forgive Me I should have known better. 6.2%
- This is it This is our perfect ending. 4.8%
- I'm Speechless Achieve every achievement in our game. You really do care. 3.0%