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Prison Architect
Only the world’s most ruthless Warden can contain the world’s most ruthless inmates. Design and develop your personalized penitentiary in Prison Architect.
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
85 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“decent game, but it is completely broken. If you actually try to build a large prison the logistics just break.”
“LOve the game. However, two launchers required just to play a simple game? WTH”
“Very good game. I tried it free on xbox in the past bought it then, and now I bought it on computer.”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“It helps you plan ahead and organise better. Pretty good things for a game, considering price and all. Pretty good”
“The various updates seem to have caused pretty severe problems with the campaign. I ran into issues on each of the first 3 chapters before giving up. This is after I played through the campaign with no issues in 2021.…”
“Great game but if you enable some of the difficulty mods there will be game breaking bugs that are pretty old. Goes on sale for like 10 bucks sometimes, very worth.”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Fun game. I can literally play for hours... and I do. Super interesting to create lots of different types of prisons and experiment with different features and layouts. Hoping they actually come out with the second…”
“After 14 prisoners getting away from my prison, I can safely say that my prison it not up to code by a lot, also the last 3 prisoners died fighting each other super smash bros style. 9/10 will play again”
“With over 100 hours in this game, it is something that I love returning to. The game is quite complex and fun. I do have the going green and second chances DLC and they are great. If you can only get one DLC, I would…”
3 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Surprisingly deep, entertaining, and lovingly made and updated”
“very good game and devs”
24 of the 103 reviews raise this · 17 of them still recommend the game.
“Game wont start ever since paradox was slapped on this game. don't buy, just look for some thing similar.”
“decent game, but it is completely broken. If you actually try to build a large prison the logistics just break.”
“constant crashes”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“If I try to stay as objective as possible, I'm gonna say this game is not worth it anymore. It simply changed for worse over the years, with some fundamental issues still not fixed while Paradox keeps releasing another…”
“Have around 80 hours of playtime with no issues just for it to randomly stop working and crash repeatedly now. Save your money.”
“buy it on sale, good game but old, probably download mods from the workshop that fix things too”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Great game, minor bugs but you can work around them and most fix themselves. Keep in mind there are a lot of mechanics to the game and can get annoying and also many of the features and items are locked in the DLCs. So…”
“Good game, although many mechanics are not explained and I have the impression that they do not work properly.”
“This game is really good if you like management games, which I'm not a fan of. So even though I am not a person who likes management games or types of building games, I do enjoy this game. It just takes a bit to…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“thanks a bunch Paradox for mugging me the game's good just make sure to watch your spending maybe when PA2 comes out i'll edit this review”
“Great game, minor bugs but you can work around them and most fix themselves. Keep in mind there are a lot of mechanics to the game and can get annoying and also many of the features and items are locked in the DLCs. So…”
“If I try to stay as objective as possible, I'm gonna say this game is not worth it anymore. It simply changed for worse over the years, with some fundamental issues still not fixed while Paradox keeps releasing another…”
3 of the 103 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“Use to be able to play the game offline, no weird additional accounts required, over elaborate terms and conditions (some one through what info they will take from you) all of that makes unplayable.”
“LOve the game. However, two launchers required just to play a simple game? WTH”
“very good game some gliches also if the game does not work on paradox go on google and search up "how to play prison architect on steam then paradox" and then follow what is says”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 89.1% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“I do recommend this game, on sale. Do not ever play full price for this unless you're just stupid. I have owned this game longer than I have had Steam, I originally played a *arrg matey* version for a year prior to buying it on steam. I enjoyed watching Introversion develop the…”
— a player, Steam review · 724 hrs played“everyone was angry and killing cops and overdosing and i couldn't figure out why. the only thing that fixed it was a room with a chessboard and a tv. 10/10 game”
— a player, Steam review · 16 hrs played“the first prison you make will be horrible. you'll understand by the second prison you make why the first was horrible. this may be something that repeats throughout your entire career in this game. it's so fun to watch your prison develop, to organise it and turn it into a well…”
— a player, Steam review · 106 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 11:58 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 Bundle: The Last Starship x Prison Architect 🚀
Hi Wardens, We have teamed up with our friends over at Introversion Software to celebrate the full 1.0 release of The Last Starship with a brand-new Steam bundle featuring The Last Starship and Prison
Introducing the Prison Architect Sweater!
Hey Wardens,We’ve been on lockdown for a while, and we know you’ve been waiting patiently… but the K-9 unit decided it was finally time to make an appearance! 🐾Introducing the Prison Architect Sweater
Total Lockdown Sale
🚨Total Lockdown Sale 🚨 Live out your Warden dreams with this Total Lockdown Bundle with up to 85% off on all Prison Architect content! This offer is only available for a limited time, make sure to get
Join our Weekly Giveaways!
We’re hosting weekly Prison Architect 1 content giveaways all the way to the Prison Architect 2’s release on May 7! You find all the Giveaway information in this thread on our Forum ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
How do Prisoner Needs work in Prison Architect 2?
Hello Architects! We have our third of many tutorials to come for Prison Architect 2 ready for you guys. If you’re as excited as we are about this - check out this tutorial featuring Charlie Pryor 👇 O
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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 | Simulation · Building · Sandbox · Base-Building · Colony Sim · Strategy · Management · City Builder · 2D · Top-Down · Multiplayer · Resource Management (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Steam Trading Cards · Steam Workshop · Steam Cloud · Includes level editor · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English, French, Italian, German, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Spain, Dutch, Japanese, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish |
| Achievements | 18 |
| Estimated owners | 5,000,000 – 10,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | https://www.prisonarchitect.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS: Windows® 10 Home 64 Bit Processor: Intel Core2 Duo 2.4Ghz or Higher / AMD 3Ghz or Higher Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia 8600 / Radeon equivalent (2009 era) Hard Drive: 400 MB HD space