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RetroArch
RetroArch is an open source and cross platform frontend/framework for emulators, game engines, video games, media players and other applications
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “works well, incredibly capable” (37 of 104 reviews) and “all consoles in one package” (17); the most common complaint is “confusing menus, steep learning curve” (22). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-28 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
37 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“RetroArch is a great multi-use emulator. It has emulators for several different consoles, different ones for them so you can choose your preferences, connection to RetroAchievements to have achievements in nearly any…”
“I have been using RetroArch since before it was even available on Steam. I nowadays mostly use Retro Arch on my Smart TV and it works flawlessly there too! This is one of the best pieces of software to play most games…”
“RetroArch offers a comprehensive suite of emulators within a single program, complete with cloud save functionality and multiplayer capabilities. Its biggest advantage lies in the extensive configuration options for…”
17 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Good to play classic games that are harder to get in physical form.”
“everything works out of the box on steam deck or on windows. Everything you need for the most common emulation systems is in this one program except for the roms (and dolphin, but so it goes).”
“the biggest must have on steam. you could technically only have this and have fun until the day you die. Setting everything up takes a bit of time, but for me this is also the fun part. LEGALLY obtaining roms, adding…”
10 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“RetroArch is a great multi-use emulator. It has emulators for several different consoles, different ones for them so you can choose your preferences, connection to RetroAchievements to have achievements in nearly any…”
“i love dumping my games i bought legally and playing them here with epic crt filters like i was transported back to the ancient year of 2006 playing lego star wars 2 on ps2. but also this doesn't have ps2 support so…”
“the biggest must have on steam. you could technically only have this and have fun until the day you die. Setting everything up takes a bit of time, but for me this is also the fun part. LEGALLY obtaining roms, adding…”
8 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“An incredible frontend for emulators. Xbox and Switch Pro controllers are plug-and-play with intuitive preset configurations. Granted, the Steam version of RetroArch is not as extensive as the version available on their…”
“Awesome emulator for old games plus the added feature of Steam cloud save for settings and Save state is such a nice QoL when switching between different computers. Games works perfectly on my 8 year old laptop or my…”
“Highly reccomend for all users even without installing the full version post-install. Cloud save is an absolute god send for those of us who jump between a PC and a Handheld.”
8 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“RetroArch is a great multi-use emulator. It has emulators for several different consoles, different ones for them so you can choose your preferences, connection to RetroAchievements to have achievements in nearly any…”
“i love dumping my games i bought legally and playing them here with epic crt filters like i was transported back to the ancient year of 2006 playing lego star wars 2 on ps2. but also this doesn't have ps2 support so…”
“the biggest must have on steam. you could technically only have this and have fun until the day you die. Setting everything up takes a bit of time, but for me this is also the fun part. LEGALLY obtaining roms, adding…”
22 of the 104 reviews raise this · 16 of them still recommend the game.
“RetroArch offers a comprehensive suite of emulators within a single program, complete with cloud save functionality and multiplayer capabilities. Its biggest advantage lies in the extensive configuration options for…”
“PT-BR: No começo é difícil de entender como funciona e como configurar, mas depois que aprende, é só alegria. ENGLISH: At first it's difficult to understand how it works and how to set it up, but once you learn, it's…”
“Edit: Just want to add, for the people in other reviews having issues and saying the controls reset, you need to save the configuration after setting controls. It doesn't automatically do it by default. Same with…”
11 of the 104 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“RetroArch is a great multi-use emulator. It has emulators for several different consoles, different ones for them so you can choose your preferences, connection to RetroAchievements to have achievements in nearly any…”
“RetroArch offers a comprehensive suite of emulators within a single program, complete with cloud save functionality and multiplayer capabilities. Its biggest advantage lies in the extensive configuration options for…”
“An incredible frontend for emulators. Xbox and Switch Pro controllers are plug-and-play with intuitive preset configurations. Granted, the Steam version of RetroArch is not as extensive as the version available on their…”
3 of the 104 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Edit: Just want to add, for the people in other reviews having issues and saying the controls reset, you need to save the configuration after setting controls. It doesn't automatically do it by default. Same with…”
“Spent more hours just trying to navigate the menu and remap controllers. It's infuriating how convoluted the menu is. For example: It will automatically swap the A and B keys for Gameboy using an XBox controller, but as…”
“a bit jank , but found some guides to play a hacked version of pokemon called unbound. biggest issue was understanding that this is a GUI over the actual emulators called cores. once I found a cracked copy of fire red,…”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 89.1% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“I'll give it my positive, because it IS Retroarch. However... Psst... (Just get Retroarch nightly from the website, then add it as a non-steam game. You will get more cores with better performance, and the latest updates.)”
— a player, Steam review · 113 hrs played“I was bald before I installed this program, but now that I've played my fav SNES games again I can say with total confidence that I'm still bald, but very happy.”
— a player, Steam review · 8 hrs played“Retroarch is a great emulator BUT the steam version is horribly stripped, thankfully this can be fixed with 2 minutes of work. This emulator being on steam is amazing, it comes with a few preview cores to get you started, cloud saved settings via steam cloud (which i have…”
— a player, Steam review · 229 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
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.
RetroArch 1.21.0 release
RetroArch 1.21.0 has just been released. Changelog AUTOCONF: Enable alternative display name in autoconfig files AUTOCONF: Make autoconfig failure messages optional AUDIO: Option to mute on rewind AUD
RetroArch 1.20.0 release
RetroArch 1.20.0 has just been released. Changelog AUDIO: Fix audio handling in case of RARCH_NETPLAY_CTL_USE_CORE_PACKET_INTERFACE AUDIO: Include missing audio filters on some platforms AUDIO/PIPEWIR
RetroArch 1.19.0 release
RetroArch 1.19.0 has just been released. Read the full article on our website here . Changelog AI: Revert AI translation to previous version (fix for translation not working with HW rendered cores) AP
Version 1.19.0 released
RetroArch 1.19.0 has just been released. Changes AI: Revert AI translation to previous version (fix for translation not working with HW rendered cores) APPLE: Try to use system preferred language APPL
Dosbox Pure core added
We added a new core, Dosbox Pure. This brings the total number of available cores on Steam to 65 now. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3005610/RetroArch__DOSBox_Pure/ DOSBox Pure is a hard fork of t
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Free To Play |
| Player tags | Free to Play · Retro · Software · Arcade · Singleplayer · Classic · Multiplayer · Local Multiplayer · Simulation · Old School · 1990's · Pixel Graphics (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Online PvP · LAN PvP · Shared/Split Screen PvP · Co-op · Online Co-op |
| Languages | English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish - S… |
| Controller | Full support |
| Official site | https://www.retroarch.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Processor: Intel Pentium 4 and up (CPU with SSE2 instructions required) Memory: 32 MB RAM Graphics: Any compliant OpenGL 2.x or Direct3D11 GPU. For shaders to work properly, should support at least Shader Model 2.0. DirectX: Version 11 Additional Notes: For OpenGL: Intel HD 2K/3K GPUs on Windows 10 will have to fall back to an OpenGL 1.1 driver.