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DEFCON
Inspired by the 1983 cult classic film, Wargames, DEFCON superbly evokes the tension, paranoia and suspicion of the Cold War era, playing on the fascinating aspects of psychological gameplay that occur during strategic nuclear warfare.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-08-31 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
32 of the 70 reviews raise this.
“Game is interesting. One thumbs up my butt.”
7 of the 70 reviews raise this.
“Fun with friends but AIs play mathematically perfectly and there's no way to tweak them so solo play is very brutal and unfun The game is also very arcadey so if you want a true to life nuclear war simulator you wont…”
6 of the 70 reviews raise this.
“great game i played many years ago its still just like war games love it!”
4 of the 70 reviews raise this.
9 of the 70 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“I'm trash at this game. Personally not for me.”
“Fun with friends but AIs play mathematically perfectly and there's no way to tweak them so solo play is very brutal and unfun The game is also very arcadey so if you want a true to life nuclear war simulator you wont…”
“One of the coolest games ever. Very, very hard to "win".”
5 of the 70 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Fun with friends but AIs play mathematically perfectly and there's no way to tweak them so solo play is very brutal and unfun The game is also very arcadey so if you want a true to life nuclear war simulator you wont…”
“Played one game of this, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ IT IS STRESSFUL. Highly Recommend. Frustrating when nukes don't hit, but fire enough and one is bound to hit.”
“Great concept. Just hate how AI destroys my units in 1 or 2 shots sometimes when i have to hit 10+ times to destroy their same unit type. Also very repetitive and I don't want to wait an eternity to play online pvp.”
3 of the 70 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“DEFCON is depressing. So if you don't like that, play something else. Everybody dies, it is horrible, and everything about the game, from the music to the graphics, is dreary and bleak. The entire game is a big…”
3 of the 70 reviews raise this.
“If you change your game resolution because the UI is too small, IT WILL CHANGE YOUR ENTIRE SYSTEM RESOLUTION.”
“can't play it”
Counted across 70 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 87.3% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“its a good thing this isnt real and can never happen in real life”
— a player, Steam review · 3 hrs played“"Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?"”
— a player, Steam review · 9 hrs played“HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL…”
— a player, Steam review · 7 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 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 2026-09-05.
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 (2026-09-04). 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.
Defcon Update in Beta Testing
Defcon Beta Update Announcement We would like to announce that, thanks to the hard efforts of Defcon fan, volunteer and skilled developers, Keiron McPhee and Jasmin Brumme, we have a new build of Defc
Update for Mac OS X 10.13 and later.
Make Mac OS X 10.13 build the default. Should resolve "damaged and can't be opened" issue on recent Mac OS X.
Everybody Dies in VR
Introversion joins the VR party! After Prison Architect, our most successful game is DEFCON - a nuclear war strategy game inspired by the 80s movie War games (If you've not seen it, so yourself a favo
Games like DEFCON
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
First Strike
71.2% · 562 reviews
shares Cold War, Diplomacy, Wargame, RTS
Age of History 3
81.4% · 3,893 reviews
shares Cold War, Diplomacy, World War II, Wargame
Hearts of Iron IV
90.0% · 164,452 reviews
shares Diplomacy, World War II, Strategy RPG, RTS
Terra Invicta
82.8% · 6,719 reviews
shares Diplomacy, Wargame, RTS, Military
Wargame: European Escalation
76.5% · 1,708 reviews
shares Cold War, Wargame, RTS, Military
Wargame: Airland Battle
87.1% · 2,740 reviews
shares Cold War, Wargame, RTS, Military
Wargame: Red Dragon
87.9% · 9,857 reviews
shares Cold War, Wargame, RTS, Military
Sins of a Solar Empire®: Rebellion
94.3% · 11,055 reviews
shares Diplomacy, RTS, Military, Replay Value
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Indie, Strategy |
| Player tags | Tactical · PvP · Online Co-Op · Co-op · Singleplayer · Strategy · Replay Value · Cold War · Military · Multiplayer · 2D · Difficult (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Online PvP · LAN PvP · Co-op · Online Co-op · LAN Co-op |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish - Spain |
| Achievements | 22 |
| Official site | http://www.everybody-dies.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Recommended: Windows XP, P3-600-Geforce 2, 128 Mb RAM, 60 Mb Hard Disk, Internet connection for multiplayer games