Home / Games / The Witness
The Witness
You wake up, alone, on a strange island full of puzzles that will challenge and surprise you.
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
83 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Most of the puzzles in the witness are fantastic, with really satifying apiphanies and reasonable ways to understand hard puzzles by doing other puzzles elsewhere in the world. However, this game does have a core issue…”
“Let me make something clear: I do not hate this game. Those eureka moments when I solved puzzles on my own, or found an environmental puzzle without any hints, and even the "Eclipse" video were the highlights of my…”
“There are two games here: One is a great journey of discovery through a visually-pleasing and immaculately-designed environment that contains lots of hidden puzzles and requires perspectival nuance. It's very satisfying…”
14 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“This game is so elegant, simple, and deeply engaging that I wished I could pause it just to reflect on it. I’m glad I didn’t just play it — I truly got to witness it.”
“Haven't finished it yet but it's already been worth it. It gives you a magical puzzle world, where just about everything is either a puzzle or something beautiful... Makes you want to explore and just look at…”
“The game is full of seemingly simple, but of increasing complexity, puzzles. It starts extremely easy, and get somewhat complex later on. That aspect of the game is fine, and despite some weird choices leading to a tiny…”
8 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“This is a tough game to recommend, it's a puzzle game that don't pull any punches on difficulty, especially since it has not a single line of dialogue or any written tutorial, it's certainly a good puzzle game,…”
“Wow this was really challenging, in a good way. Aside from a couple of puzzles which were hard to figure out without a hint Yes I am a noob, but the game occasionally throws you something that isn't about…”
“wonderful game, loved all the ways of the different puzzles and how to solve them, definately wasn't an easy game though”
4 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“This game isn't for everyone. This game is two games in one. One eye spy / scavenger hunt, and the other is puzzle solving. The art is amazing, the sound design is super well done. It's peaceful but not boring. The map…”
“Best puzzle game I have played in a long time. Worth the suffering to finish it. Beautiful visuals with lost of nice atmosferic sounds and or music. The difficulty can ramp up but you can move onto other puzzles in…”
“Nice atmosphere and great puzzle designs. The game gradually introduces new mechanics that keep the game fresh and challenging. Definitely recommended!”
16 of the 104 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Most of the puzzles in the witness are fantastic, with really satifying apiphanies and reasonable ways to understand hard puzzles by doing other puzzles elsewhere in the world. However, this game does have a core issue…”
“Let me make something clear: I do not hate this game. Those eureka moments when I solved puzzles on my own, or found an environmental puzzle without any hints, and even the "Eclipse" video were the highlights of my…”
“After the first few sets of puzzles, it abandons any effort to try to teach the player in favor of just showing you a new mechanic and having you guess at how it works, essentially asking you to teach yourself the…”
7 of the 104 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Played all the way through and did the challenge. Throughout the game there are sequences of puzzles that turn off and require to go back and input the answer to the previous one if you make a mistake - more than…”
“There's at least one puzzle that requires you to wait for an hour, unable to do anything else, with no way to speed it up, and if you turn your attention elsewhere and miss the end of the waiting, you'll have to start…”
“The game has phenomenal puzzles but its mired in design issues from everything taking longer than it should or puzzle designs that exist only to annoy the player. I didnt get all the meta puzzle lines or lasers, but the…”
7 of the 104 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“Most of the puzzles in the witness are fantastic, with really satifying apiphanies and reasonable ways to understand hard puzzles by doing other puzzles elsewhere in the world. However, this game does have a core issue…”
“Let me make something clear: I do not hate this game. Those eureka moments when I solved puzzles on my own, or found an environmental puzzle without any hints, and even the "Eclipse" video were the highlights of my…”
“After the first few sets of puzzles, it abandons any effort to try to teach the player in favor of just showing you a new mechanic and having you guess at how it works, essentially asking you to teach yourself the…”
4 of the 104 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“The game has phenomenal puzzles but its mired in design issues from everything taking longer than it should or puzzle designs that exist only to annoy the player. I didnt get all the meta puzzle lines or lasers, but the…”
“this game is really good as long as you mute it every time someone starts talking.”
“Good game but for the love of god and all that is holy never click on an audio log...”
3 of the 104 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“As someone who loves puzzle games, I'm sorry - I can't recommend this. The Witness is really just the same mini-game copied and pasted hundreds of times into different parts of the game world with various rulesets.…”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 84.9% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“One of those puzzle games that slowly rewires the way you think. At first it seems almost too simple, just drawing lines on panels scattered around a quiet island. Then the game starts layering new ideas without ever explaining them and suddenly you’re standing there staring at…”
— a player, Steam review · 61 hrs played“As someone with a background in education, the way that this game is designed so you intuit the rules of the various puzzles without any written instructions or guides can be breathtaking at times. Jonathan Blow is a terrible person but he made a fantastic game here, The Witness…”
— a player, Steam review · 24 hrs played“This is a game for those who often find themselves deep in thought, who enjoy not only solving puzzles, but the process of creating them. It's a game about noticing that special something in what you pass by each day. It's full of "aha" moments, and (maybe more importantly)…”
— a player, Steam review · 39 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-23 23:41 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.
Finally, after 10 years...
The Witness was released in 2016, ten years ago... how time flies! We've been working hard that whole time, and can happily announce that the successor game is almost done, and there's a free demo on
Braid Anniversary + Witness Bundle
Earlier this year we released Braid, Anniversary Edition , a remastered version of Braid with a bunch of new levels and tons of developer commentary. Now Braid Anniversary is on sale and The Witness i
Another Update for the macOS version
Fixed a crash on some modern macOS systems that was was caused by an outdated Steam SDK.
Hotfix for macOS 10.13-10.14
Fixed crash on macOS versions before 10.15 that got introduced in the recent update.
Hotfix for the macOS version
Fixed crash on macOS versions before 11.0 that got introduced in yesterday’s update.
Games like The Witness
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
realMyst: Masterpiece Edition
89.6% · 1,344 reviews
shares Beautiful, Surreal, Walking Simulator, Mystery
Manifold Garden
94.9% · 4,786 reviews
shares Philosophical, Nonlinear, Surreal, Mystery
The Unfinished Swan
81.1% · 1,125 reviews
shares Beautiful, Surreal, Walking Simulator, Great Soundtrack
GRIS
94.9% · 31,176 reviews
shares Beautiful, Surreal, Walking Simulator, Great Soundtrack
Eastshade
89.9% · 3,721 reviews
shares Beautiful, Walking Simulator, Great Soundtrack, Open World
Obduction
80.0% · 3,159 reviews
shares Nonlinear, Surreal, Walking Simulator, Mystery
Proteus
76.7% · 2,271 reviews
shares Beautiful, Surreal, Walking Simulator, Great Soundtrack
Riven (1997)
89.7% · 1,112 reviews
shares Beautiful, Surreal, Great Soundtrack, Mystery
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 | Puzzle · Exploration · First-Person · Open World · Singleplayer · Colorful · Indie · Atmospheric · Difficult · Walking Simulator · Adventure · Mystery (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Captions available · Partial Controller Support · Steam Cloud · Remote Play on Phone · Remote Play on Tablet · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * , French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Hungarian * |
| Achievements | 2 |
| Estimated owners | 1,000,000 – 2,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://the-witness.net/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows 7 Processor: 1.8GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Intel HD 4000 series DirectX: Version 10 Storage: 5 GB available space