Surviving Mars
Give it 3 hours
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 2 reviews are negative (46%); after 20h it's 1 in 5 (18%).
- Fully opens up by hour 10.
- The game has no story achievements, so drop-off points can't be measured.
- Only 47% of owners have even the first achievement — the rest barely played.
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 29,420 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 251 reviews: 18.2h for positive, 10.6h 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 (46.9% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
This game has no story achievements, so we can't tell where players quit.
All achievements (80)
story milestone ending side
- Where No Man has Gone Before Analyze an Anomaly 100%
- Bubble Wrap Build a Dome 94%
- There and Back Again Refuel a Rocket 90%
- Spacey Food Harvest Food on Mars 81%
- Good News, Everyone! Pass the Colony Approval stage 76%
- Marvin the Martian First child on Mars 70%
- In the High Tower Build a Dome Spire 59%
- Open the Pod Bay Doors Build a Shuttle Hub 55%
- Perfect Moment Have a Colonist with all four stats at maximum 41%
- Can't Stop the Signal Scan all Sectors 38%
- You can't take the Sky from Me! Land 50 Rockets on Mars in a single playthrough 36%
- S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Have a Colonist with 5 Perks 35%
- Space Communism Reach 250 Colonists 34%
- Marsopolis Reach 100 Colonists living in a single Dome 33%
- The Final Frontier Deep scan all Sectors 29%
- A Better Planet Have an Earthsick Colonist who decided to stay on Mars 28%
- The Rabbit Hole Build the Mohole Mine 28%
- A Shooting Star Shoot down a meteorite 28%
- The Beanstalk Build the Space Elevator 25%
- Alpha Scientist Build the Omega Telescope 25%
- Seeds of Life Harvest Seeds on Mars 24%
- It's Always Sunny on Mars Build the Artificial Sun 24%
- Cast in Concrete Build the Excavator 23%
- Snow Globe Build the Geoscape Dome 22%
- What is Real? Build Project Morpheus 22%
- The New Wonders of the World Construct 5 different Wonders in a single playthrough 22%
- The Boundaries of Knowledge Research all non-Breakthrough Technologies 22%
- Assisted Self-Improvement Treat 50 Colonists in a Sanatorium 21%
- Move this Mountain! Have a RC Dozer complete a landscaping project 20%
- Now we need ducks Have a lake with liquid water 20%
- Multiplanet Species Reach 1000 Colonists 20%
- How Much is a Googol? Reach $100,000 M 19%
- Posthuman Have a Colonist with 2 Rare traits 18%
- Skies of Blue Create blue skies by terraforming 17%
- Tears of Joy Have water rain on Mars 17%
- Fear my Botany Powers! Plant a tree 17%
- Detox Endure the Toxic Rains 16%
- Red Button Nuke the Polar Caps 15%
- Wubba, lubba, dub, dub! Build 1000 buildings 15%
- Immortality of a Kind Have a citizen that was reconstructed by Project Phoenix 15%
- The Positronic Man Have a Biorobot Colonist 13%
- Cubism Complete The Power of Three Mystery 13%
- Capital Achievement Construct a Capital City 13%
- Creator of Worlds Max all Terraforming Parameters 9.8%
- Because we Care Play as Europe and research 5 Breakthrough Technologies before Sol 100 9.6%
- Space Invaders Complete the Dredgers mystery 9.4%
- Whistleblower Complete the Marsgate mystery 8.3%
- Swan Song Complete the Inner Light mystery 7.2%
- Sentience 2.0 Complete the Artificial Intelligence mystery 7.2%
- Mirror, mirror... Complete the Spheres mystery 7.0%
- Dream of a Green Mars Reach 200 Vegans 6.6%
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Have a Dome populated by at least 50 Biorobot Colonists 5.8%
- Building a Better Future Play as Blue Sun Corporation and export 500 units of Rare Metals to Earth before Sol 100 5.3%
- Gagarin's Legacy Play as Russia and extract 10000 resource units from Deposits before Sol 100 5.3%
- Gold Rush Play as Brazil and convert 2000 Waste Rock to Rare Metals before Sol 100 5.1%
- Mission Success Successfully return from an asteroid 5.1%
- Interesting Times Play as China and reach a population of 200 before Sol 100 4.9%
- In the Service of Humankind Play as India and have 5 Domes before Sol 100 4.7%
- The Watney Challenge Pass the Colony Approval stage with a single Founder 4.5%
- The New Ark Play as the Church of the New Ark and have 100 people born on Mars before Sol 100 4.3%
- Space Explorer Complete all techs in the recon & expansion tech tree 4.1%
- For the Benefit of All Play as USA and research all technologies in the Engineering tech-tree before Sol 100 4.1%
- Aren't they Cute? Play as SpaceY and control 200 Drones before Sol 100 3.8%
- Europa Universalis Play as Europe and reach daily production of 10,000 Research before Sol 100 3.4%
- Tao Play as China and have Tai-chi Gardens in 10 Domes before Sol 100 3.2%
- Space Shopping Play as USA and have a Geoscape Dome with a Megamall before Sol 100 3.2%
- Space Capitalism Play as Blue Sun Corporation and produce $100,000 M Funding before Sol 100 3.0%
- Waste Not, Want Not Play as India and convert 3000 Waste Rock to useful materials before Sol 100 3.0%
- Bushido Play as Japan and train 200 specialists before Sol 100 2.6%
- Mysteries of Mars Fully develop a buried wonder to benefit your colony 2.6%
- The Garden of Eden Play as Church of the new Ark and have 250 Colonists at 70+ Comfort before Sol 100 2.6%
- No Pain, No Gain Play as Russia and have 500 colonists on challenge rating 500% or higher 2.6%
- The Pace of Progress Play as SpaceY and complete all Sponsor Goals on challenge rating 500% or higher 2.6%
- Multitasking Visit 3 asteroids simultaneously 2.3%
- The Perfect Run Retrieve all resources from an asteroid & leave nothing behind 1.7%
- Will they hold? Prevent 100 Cave-ins in total from Underground Marsquakes 1.7%
- Asteroid Hopping Have a single Asteroid Lander visit 10 asteroids before returning to Mars 1.5%
- Into the Unknown Go game over as your last colonists leaves Mars behind to take a trip into the great unknown 1.5%
- Job’s done Fully develop all buried wonders in the underground, before sol 100 1.5%
- Space Dwarves All your colonists live underground (at least 200 colonists) 1.5%