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Banished
In this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland. The townspeople of Banished are your primary resource.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
83 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Started a new game on easy mode, built up my food sources and got my settlement established with a population starting to boom. 30 minutes in and half of the settlement and population gets flattened by a tornado. 10/10…”
“Pretty good town/colony builder. Early game is rather nail-biting. Never quite know whether you got the balance of people vs food right, could go wrong quickly. The feedback cycles are fairly long: didnt grow enough…”
“game is way ahead of its time probably one of the ground breaking games of its genre. Absolutely love it can sit here for hours and play it with no issues.”
29 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Started a new game on easy mode, built up my food sources and got my settlement established with a population starting to boom. 30 minutes in and half of the settlement and population gets flattened by a tornado. 10/10…”
“Strong 8 out of 10 Fun and challenging city builder sim, with nice graphic design, and animations. People live, work, and have families, while you manage their tasks to help them build a thriving village, and then town,…”
“🎚️ Difficulty 🔲 My grandma could play it 🔲 Easy 🔲 Normal ☑️ Hard ☑️ A challenge to be reckoned (at times) 🔲 In the heat of confrontation, (Only PVP games) 🗺️ Graphics 🔲 MS Paint 🔲 Bad ☑️ Meh 🔲 Normal 🔲 Very Good 🔲 An…”
15 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“This is my favorite "turn my brain off" game that I haven't been able to find a replacement for. Mods make it easier if you don't want the added challenge of scarce resources and just want to build the biggest city you…”
“Nothing scratches the city builder itch like Banished. There's a reason it inspired just about every city builder that came out since its release 10+ years ago, and there's a reason people still play it today, despite…”
“Well its a pretty good game, with some serious flaws, over 300-500 population game starts to lag BAAADLY, and its not my pc, or my laptop, its this game engine, support for only 1core/thread kills it.. Its so stupid, it…”
9 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Strong 8 out of 10 Fun and challenging city builder sim, with nice graphic design, and animations. People live, work, and have families, while you manage their tasks to help them build a thriving village, and then town,…”
“I want to give a neutral rating, but that's not an option unfortunately. The overall mechanics of the game is easy. But there is no tutorial, so you will have to learn them yourself. I like the art and the overall…”
“I've played Banished off and on for many years now. It is an excellent game. Graphics are good. Gameplay is great. It is just the right level of challenge (you can adjust it) and reward. You become so invested in your…”
3 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“One of the best game I've played. The modding community is incredible”
“One of my all time favorite games. Good three song sound track, slow paced and fun achievements. If you ever get bored of any of those three the game allows you to still enjoy it without them (just use youtube for music…”
11 of the 103 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“Pretty good town/colony builder. Early game is rather nail-biting. Never quite know whether you got the balance of people vs food right, could go wrong quickly. The feedback cycles are fairly long: didnt grow enough…”
“1 guy made this game and major props to him. Banished was great for what it was, a small, tightly orchestrated set of gameplay loops weaved together and presented in a classic, tried & true style. The game does struggle…”
“My hours may not show it, but this game is fantastic, I just wish I was semi decent at these types of games ! I will try it again at some point, but regardless of my ability of type of games I usually play, I can…”
10 of the 103 reviews raise this · 8 of them still recommend the game.
“Starts off great, but this thing is less of a city builder than a CONSTANT worker allocation game. Coming from Timberborn or Manor Lords, this game has only about a fraction of the options those games have and less of a…”
“Pretty good town/colony builder. Early game is rather nail-biting. Never quite know whether you got the balance of people vs food right, could go wrong quickly. The feedback cycles are fairly long: didnt grow enough…”
“I've spent so much time on this game.. It's simple yet captivating. I can spend hours building and managing my town. I do wish they added updates or made a second game with more buildings and stuff, but if you're into…”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“This is my favorite "turn my brain off" game that I haven't been able to find a replacement for. Mods make it easier if you don't want the added challenge of scarce resources and just want to build the biggest city you…”
“Farmers would rather move rocks than harvest their fields. Fisheries don't tell you harvest limits for overlapping water, nor does the game warn you about any of the very critical things that can kill your village…”
“I remember when this game first came out and being obsessed with watching videos of it for hours. I don't believe the developer works on this game anymore, and there are a few bugs that are mind boggling, with AI…”
7 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Starts off great, but this thing is less of a city builder than a CONSTANT worker allocation game. Coming from Timberborn or Manor Lords, this game has only about a fraction of the options those games have and less of a…”
“Farmers would rather move rocks than harvest their fields. Fisheries don't tell you harvest limits for overlapping water, nor does the game warn you about any of the very critical things that can kill your village…”
“stupid FAT people keep taking TWELVE ROAST CHICKENS HOME AND STARVING IN A WEEK WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE SO FAT”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“1 guy made this game and major props to him. Banished was great for what it was, a small, tightly orchestrated set of gameplay loops weaved together and presented in a classic, tried & true style. The game does struggle…”
“Farmers would rather move rocks than harvest their fields. Fisheries don't tell you harvest limits for overlapping water, nor does the game warn you about any of the very critical things that can kill your village…”
“Good game with a learning curve, but so far it;s going great. I only had to start over 3 times. AND Please fix the TINY lettering font on the info and charts. It is impossible to see.”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 90.4% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“This game is digital crack. I thought I was going to bed at a reasonable hour last night only to discover it was already 2:00 am so I just wanted to wrap up what I was doing only to realize it was suddenly 3:00 am. Someone suggest a support group because I'm obviously an addict!”
— a player, Steam review · 103 hrs played“Incredibly entertaining and immersive, the graphics style aged very well, the music is enchanting...no wonder this is a genre defining legend! Your typical "How is it 4AM already?" game, my first 14 hours played was in one sitting and I skipped sleep altogether. Wanted to write…”
— a player, Steam review · 17 hrs played“The platonic ideal of a city builder. Small, simple, and enjoyable.”
— a player, Steam review · 81 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 12:01 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
New Beta Build Available
Beta build 1.0.5 is now available to test major engine changes that have been made to support multiple platforms for Banished. It also contains a few bug fixes, and some changes to the mod kit. Read m
New Beta Build Available
Beta build 1.0.5 is now available to test major engine changes that have been made to support multiple platforms for Banished. It also contains a few bug fixes, and some changes to the mod kit. Read m
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Indie, Simulation, Strategy |
| Player tags | City Builder · Colony Sim · Strategy · Simulation · Survival · Indie · Singleplayer · Sandbox · Medieval · Resource Management · Relaxing · Economy (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Remote Play on Phone · Remote Play on Tablet · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * * |
| Achievements | 36 |
| Estimated owners | 2,000,000 – 5,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Win XP SP3 / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor Memory: 512 MB RAM Graphics: 512 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card (shader model 2) DirectX: Version 9.0c Storage: 250 MB available space Sound Card: Any