When does Card Shark get good?

Give it 5 hours. In the first 2 hours 1 in 5 reviews are negative (19%); after 7h it's 1 in 19 (5%). Fully opens up by hour 7.

How many players finish Card Shark?

At least 9% of players who start reach the ending.

All games

AdventureIndieSimulation

Card Shark

Jun 2, 2022 Steam: Very Positive

Give it 5 hours

Gets good by 5h then rated almost like by veterans

Fully opens up by 7h rated like by long-time players

Reach the ending at least 9% of players who started

Started playing 87% of owners

Steam reviews 90% positive of 3,276

What the data shows

In the first 2 hours 1 in 5 reviews are negative (19%); after 7h it's 1 in 19 (5%).
Fully opens up by hour 7.
The opening is criticised less than in 75% of games we track.
At least 9% of players who start reach the ending.
The biggest drop-off is between “Earning Your Keep” (Pull off the first scam of your journey) and “Back From The Brink”: from 92% to 51% of starters.
87% 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 3,310 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 300 reviews: 7.1h for positive, 3.5h 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 (86.7% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.

Started playing 100%
Earning Your Keep Pull off the first scam of your journey. 92% −8
Back From The Brink Return to the world of the living for the first time. Most players quit here 51% −41
Mortal Usurper Take a seat in the Lady of Bones’ throne. 37% −14
Striking Out Cheat for yourself during the final round in Versailles. ≥9% −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 (52)

story milestone ending side

Party Trick Master the Ineffective Shuffle. 100%
I Can See My Face In This! Wipe the table for 5 seconds. 92%
Earning Your Keep Pull off the first scam of your journey. 92%
Cake Costs Covered Spare money for the camp fund. 87%
A Slippery Slope Increase the bet at least twice. 75%
The Tardy Optimist Loiter mid-game in a backroom or cellar. 54%
Back From The Brink Return to the world of the living for the first time. 51%
Look At Me. I Am The Comte Now! You got the stronger hand, for once. 49%
Pearl Stirrer Turn the bandits against each other. 46%
Hat Trick Complete 3 card tosses in a row. 44%
Mortal Usurper Take a seat in the Lady of Bones’ throne. 37%
Hot Seat Fling a card on the Colonel's seat. 36%
The Sticky Card Give yourself the card you kept back in Sticky Hand. 35%
The Rambling Man Walk a total of 1000 steps. 31%
Not For Sale Inspect all the paintings in Belle's workshop. 30%
Brains And Brawn Train with the Chevalier without making a mistake. 30%
Croupier For Hire Perfectly time your deal. 28%
Comeback Kid Beat Theodore at his game. 28%
Spoil-Sport Find the Queen in the introduction to Three Card Monte. 27%
From Rags To Riches Hold on to 1500 coins. 25%
This Casino Ain't Big Enough For The Two Of Us Sabotage the other cheat's ploy. 24%
A Lucky Streak? Win 7 tables in a row. 24%
Ms Porterhouse Avenged Ridicule Colonel Gabriel. 23%
Playtime Is Over Skip 5 tutorials. 23%
Now For A Lie Down Complete the last tutorial of the game. 19%
The Hedgehog Injog 5 times in the same deck. 18%
What Goes Around Comes Around Put the Red Lion in a cage. 18%
The Camp's Caretaker Teach Kepplinger a lesson. 17%
Sloppy Service Make a glass overflow 5 times. 16%
Corrective Measures Correct one of your shuffling mistakes. 15%
Jack Of All Trades Earn every Strategy Card in the game. 13%
3 Stab Monte Encounter the sharp end of the countryside. 13%
Social Butterfly Encounter every character in the game. 13%
No Stone Left Unturned Replay the game after finishing it. 12%
Striking Out Cheat for yourself during the final round in Versailles. 9.0%
At Least The Hay Is Comfortable Be bested by the three losers in the barn. 6.5%
Let The Chips Fall Where They May Play honestly during the final round of Versailles. 6.0%
Death-Botherer Greet the Lady of Bones 10 times. 5.9%
The Hero With A Thousand Faces Cheat for Erdnase during the final round in Versailles. 5.8%
In The End, Death Takes It All. Give your save file to the Lady of Bones. 5.0%
Long Live The King Cheat for the King during the final round in Versailles. 4.7%
Early Pointillism Mark a card with 8 or more paint marks. 4.2%
Vive La Révolution Cheat for the Comte during the final round in Versailles. 4.2%
To Me! Toast yourself. 2.8%
Landlubber Pay the full price of the voyage. 2.3%
Do I Know You? Test the limits of your disguise. 2.3%
Speed Demon Beat Card Shark's tester's time (2:12:40). 2.2%
Pipped At The Post Get caught cheating during the final round in Versailles. 1.8%
The Masochist Die in 6 different ways. 0.9%
Comedy Macabre Bring a joyful tear to Death's eye. 0.8%
Erdnase, Who? Finish the game without losing a single round. 0.6%
Butter Fingers Fail every technique at least once. 0.6%

Steam page Updated: 2026-10-19.