Home / Games / Idle Research
Idle Research
Idle Research is an addictive, resource management, incremental game with both idle and active playstyles. Research and craft colorful Flasks and Tubes to earn as much Energy as possible! Big numbers guaranteed.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
49 of the 78 reviews raise this.
11 of the 78 reviews raise this.
“Honestly a really good, well rounded idle game. The interface is intuitive and the mechanics are easy to understand, and progress is actually balanced, not one of thise Idle games you need 1300 hours to finish. Not sure…”
8 of the 78 reviews raise this.
“Tentative thumbs up. Worth playing if you have burned though most of the idle game options on Steam, but not one of the better ones in the genre. Some of the mechanics are obtuse but not in an interesting "I want to…”
4 of the 78 reviews raise this.
“Honestly a really good, well rounded idle game. The interface is intuitive and the mechanics are easy to understand, and progress is actually balanced, not one of thise Idle games you need 1300 hours to finish. Not sure…”
4 of the 78 reviews raise this.
“3 stars. I much recommend getting leaf blower revolution or even revolution idle over this, as they have far more content and are more interesting. Sure, this game is cleanly made and lasts maybe 30 hours of idle (I…”
“Honestly a really good, well rounded idle game. The interface is intuitive and the mechanics are easy to understand, and progress is actually balanced, not one of thise Idle games you need 1300 hours to finish. Not sure…”
20 of the 78 reviews raise this · 13 of them still recommend the game.
11 of the 78 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Utterly boring with a glacial pace progression.”
“you can spend all of your diamonds on a locked diamond flask upgrade tab by just clicking it, the reset diamonds button does not return them and loading old saves still has the diamond flasks missing.”
“Yet another abandoned early access game, and a disappointing entry in a list of seemingly failed attempts by this developer to find something interesting in the incremental game space. This "game" lacks a clear vision…”
9 of the 78 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Utterly boring with a glacial pace progression.”
“3 stars. I much recommend getting leaf blower revolution or even revolution idle over this, as they have far more content and are more interesting. Sure, this game is cleanly made and lasts maybe 30 hours of idle (I…”
“way too little to do in terms of gameplay. incomplete game.”
7 of the 78 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“way too little to do in terms of gameplay. incomplete game.”
4 of the 78 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“you can spend all of your diamonds on a locked diamond flask upgrade tab by just clicking it, the reset diamonds button does not return them and loading old saves still has the diamond flasks missing.”
Counted across 78 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 83.9% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“after 100% this game steam achievements wise, i can safely say this game made me into a solitaire player. 10/10 never again”
— a player, Steam review · 44 hrs played“I really like this one and at this point I kinda doubt the future of the cylinders update. From what I understand of the sitch though there is a some gunky code that needs unraveled to get the update pushed so looking forward to the sequel and maybe one day cylinders will be…”
— a player, Steam review · 184 hrs played“Dead Game I got excited at first because the game look a lot like revolution idle at first sight and the game had lot of recent announcement, i bought it and had lot of fun at beginning but after only 2 days i did not understood why the game was sudently slow, it appears the…”
— a player, Steam review · 64 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.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Idle Research 2 - Developer Standup Blog News - Episode 3 (XV-L)
Hey everyone! I'm back with the largest set of developer standup blogs so far. Since the last post, I have finally graduated from college with a bachelors in Computer Science, and transitioned to full
Idle Research 2 - Developer Standup Blog News - Episode 2 (XI-XIV)
Hey everyone! I'm back with another set of developer standup blogs from my discord. Posts have been less frequent because of College. I'm about 2 weeks away from graduating! Anyways, I present you the
Idle Research 2 - Developer Standup Blog News - Episode 1 (I-X)
Starting today, I will be reposting 10 days of developer standup blogs that I write on my discord server. These will be delayed but highly detailed posts about what I have been working on for Idle Res
Idle Research Further Development News
You wake up from a time-activated cryogenic pod in 2070 on planet Mu Ra Tempel — after the devasting Earth-27 Mutually Assured Destruction incident. Steam Page At The Bottom Hey all, I have been able
Idle Research 2 - Optional Survey
Hey friends! Happy 4th of July to my American players, and happy Thursday to everyone else! I hope everyone is having a great week. As decided on my discord, I have decided to begin development on a n
Games like Idle Research
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
Factory Town Idle
92.1% · 633 reviews
shares Automation, Idler, Clicker, Resource Management
Mr.Mine
89.0% · 6,994 reviews
shares Idler, Clicker, Resource Management, Crafting
Vacuum Warrior - Idle Game
78.8% · 657 reviews
shares Automation, Idler, Clicker, Resource Management
Microcivilization
78.1% · 923 reviews
shares Diplomacy, Automation, Idler, Clicker
Holyday City: Reloaded
76.8% · 667 reviews
shares Idler, Clicker, Text Based, Resource Management
AdVenture Capitalist
86.1% · 38,227 reviews
shares Automation, Idler, Clicker, Management
Outpath
93.8% · 1,662 reviews
shares Automation, Idler, Resource Management, Crafting
Beltmatic
93.8% · 1,457 reviews
shares Automation, Idler, Resource Management, Crafting
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Adventure, Casual, Free To Play, Indie, Simulation, Strategy, Early Access |
| Player tags | Idler · Clicker · Free to Play · Simulation · Strategy · Adventure · Resource Management · Automation · Early Access · Management · 2D · Minimalist (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · In-App Purchases |
| Languages | English |
| Achievements | 99 |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 7+ Processor: x64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support. Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: Integrated Graphics Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 2 GB available space Additional Notes: Unity Game