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Subnautica: Below Zero
Dive into a freezing underwater adventure on an alien planet. Below Zero is set two years after the original Subnautica. Return to Planet 4546B to uncover the truth behind a deadly cover-up. Survive by building habitats, crafting tools, & diving deeper into the world of Subnautica.
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
42 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Too overhated but also not as good as original subnautica, still a very good game that i enjoyed and i can recommend it if you loved original game”
“If you’ve ever looked at the ocean and thought, "I’d love to live there, but I'd also like to be hunted by a neon lit nightmare," this is your game. It’s a tighter, more compact experience. If the first game was an…”
“So I recently Subnautica (over like a 4 year period lol) and I wanted to play sub-zero before Subnautica 2 comes out and I wasn't sure what to expect because of some of the negativity involved with this game. Honestly I…”
23 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I [i]liked[/i] it. But only because I played the original. I can't say I would become a fan of these games if I played Below Zero first. I'll start with what is arguably better: - New biomes look fantastic, especially…”
“If you’ve ever looked at the ocean and thought, "I’d love to live there, but I'd also like to be hunted by a neon lit nightmare," this is your game. It’s a tighter, more compact experience. If the first game was an…”
“Although I came in with a positive mindset from my love for survival games, it's a disappointment compared to Subnautica. The creatures are overly aggressive, making too many encounters feel forced. The land feels…”
15 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I [i]liked[/i] it. But only because I played the original. I can't say I would become a fan of these games if I played Below Zero first. I'll start with what is arguably better: - New biomes look fantastic, especially…”
“Great graphs, great game, great storyline”
“The story. And the biomes. And graphics. EVERYTHING. IS. PERFECT. Not playing this is criminal from now on, I totally have the right to do that.... Just go unda da sea”
13 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Great standalone expansion. Takes all the good things from the original Subnautica, gives them a new north/frozen biome makeover, and carries on being fun. Map is smaller but still great, new creatures/vehicles have…”
“Pretty good, beat it like 9 hours faster than the OG mostly blind, Def felt more like DLC and story driven. I ended up doing the endgame stuff just exploring before i really started the above ground missions. Not bad…”
“This is the game that got me hooked on the series... By the way, the second game is coming out soon, I'm really looking forward to it! Amazingly beautiful graphics, nice sound, fun gameplay! The only thing is, during…”
4 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I had abnormally low expectations for this game because of the endless hate videos i got force-fed by YouTube. But because of those, Below Zero turned out to be a wonderful surprise! In many ways it's actually better…”
“This is the game that got me hooked on the series... By the way, the second game is coming out soon, I'm really looking forward to it! Amazingly beautiful graphics, nice sound, fun gameplay! The only thing is, during…”
“PEAK Seriously, I don't get why the prevailing opinion seems to be that the original was better. I had a spectacular time, start to finish. A really excellent story, an interesting map with lots of twists and turns, and…”
24 of the 104 reviews raise this · 16 of them still recommend the game.
“I loved subnautica. The original game is a lot of fun, however it has one key feature that Below Zero doesn't "Plot-to-world direction" Level design and plot of Subnautica pushes the player to go deeper. Need more…”
“Subpar Subnautica game....just wait for Subnautica 2 and skip this Terrible writing, boring world, boring story, bland”
“Have to give it a thumbs up because I love the series, but I find all these games always overstay their welcome. Love the beginning just exploring and scanning and letting the story unfold. But I always get to a point…”
21 of the 104 reviews raise this · 14 of them still recommend the game.
“I loved subnautica. The original game is a lot of fun, however it has one key feature that Below Zero doesn't "Plot-to-world direction" Level design and plot of Subnautica pushes the player to go deeper. Need more…”
“I [i]liked[/i] it. But only because I played the original. I can't say I would become a fan of these games if I played Below Zero first. I'll start with what is arguably better: - New biomes look fantastic, especially…”
“good game but the map is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too small and the ending was pretty boring :I sadly just a downgrade of Subnautica 1 tbh ;/”
15 of the 104 reviews raise this · 12 of them still recommend the game.
“good game but the map is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too small and the ending was pretty boring :I sadly just a downgrade of Subnautica 1 tbh ;/”
“good game, beat it in 9h, it's good for a sequel, but if you haven't played the first Subnautica the 30eur price tag is not worth it, i'm highly recommeding to buy the first game before this one, or get below zero on…”
“Great standalone expansion. Takes all the good things from the original Subnautica, gives them a new north/frozen biome makeover, and carries on being fun. Map is smaller but still great, new creatures/vehicles have…”
10 of the 104 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“I loved subnautica. The original game is a lot of fun, however it has one key feature that Below Zero doesn't "Plot-to-world direction" Level design and plot of Subnautica pushes the player to go deeper. Need more…”
“Crap DLC to a GOAT Subnautica 1, hard to find out what to do, story sucks, all the crap about your sister doesn't matter, above ground movement is really bad, any minor increase in level stops you and you have to jump,…”
“This game is effectively unplayable without guides, i played Subnautica 2 like 2-3 times and same i could never find ♥♥♥♥ i needed here in million times, like would take forever one cave, i mean just look up what you…”
5 of the 104 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Crap DLC to a GOAT Subnautica 1, hard to find out what to do, story sucks, all the crap about your sister doesn't matter, above ground movement is really bad, any minor increase in level stops you and you have to jump,…”
“if you have played subnautica then you will be pissed off with this mess of a game, if you have not then you might like it. story is a total mess it is all over the place an uninteresting which is what made the first…”
“this game is so much smaller, slower, and boring compared to the first one”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 90.6% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“There's a lot of negative opinions about Below Zero, especially compared to the first game. But going immediately from first game to BZ, I don't get the issues. The first game is more open world, environmental storytelling, Below Zero is more enclosed, personality and character…”
— a player, Steam review · 28 hrs played“I mean, I had more fun with the first game, but this one was good too. I hope Subnautica 2 comes out, I'm guessing that one will be even better.”
— a player, Steam review · 24 hrs played“I have about 250 hours in the original Subnautica and I just got around to playing BZ. I'd heard so much about how disappointing it was compared to the original so I put off playing it for a long time, but having finished it now I can say with 100% certainty it is still an…”
— a player, Steam review · 25 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 13:02 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.
Subnautica Free Weekend & Series Sale
Hello Subnauts, With Subnautica 2's Early Access launch on the horizon, we're hosting a Free Weekend for Subnautica, the game that started it all. From April 2nd at 10:00 AM PT through April 6th at 9:
Below Zero Security Hotfix
We have released a hotfix today that addresses a security-related concern raised to us by Unity. You can read more about the specific issue here: https://unity.com/security/sept-2025-01/ While the upd
Below Zero 2025 Patch
We’ve just released a brand new patch full of bug fixes and improvements for Below Zero! This update will roll out worldwide and might take some time to appear across the globe. PC & Console Added a p
Subnautica 2 Early Access Coming 2025
We’re thrilled today to unveil the first teaser trailer for Subnautica 2 and announce that we’ll be heading to Early Access in 2025! 🥳 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS0vTRl_2PQ Store pages are now l
Teeny-Tiny Hotfix
Hello Subnauts! We’ve released the Teeny-Tiny Hotfix - a patch to resolve a few bugs from our last update What the Dock. Fixes: Ambient water particles are now showing correctly Fix to allow new scree
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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 | Adventure, Indie |
| Player tags | Open World Survival Craft · Survival · Underwater · Singleplayer · Open World · Horror · Exploration · Base-Building · Indie · Adventure · Crafting · Multiplayer (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards · Steam Cloud · Remote Play on TV · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * , French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Spanish - Latin America, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Czech, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Traditional Chines… |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 13 |
| Estimated owners | 2,000,000 – 5,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | https://unknownworlds.com/subnautica |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 7 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i3 4XXX series / AMD Ryzen 3 2.6ghz+ Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Intel HD 530 or better DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 15 GB available space