Terraria becomes the first indie hit to break 1M positive user reviews on Steam

We liked Terraria so much we reviewed it twice: Once in 2011, when it was new, and then again in 2018, when we found that it was "still one of the best adventures out there." In case that's not sufficient testament to both its quality and its durability, Terraria has now pulled in over one million positive user reviews on Steam, becoming the first indie game to do so.

One of the big reasons for Terraria's enduring popularity is no doubt the relentless support given to the game, and its players, by developer Re-Logic. Its 'final' update went live in May 2020, nine years after the original release of the game, but then another 'actual final update' came out in October, followed by still more updates in 2021. In 2022 there have been even more updates, the most recent less than a month ago, and at this point I don't think anyone is even pretending that any of these updates will be the end of it.

Terraria co-creator Andrew Spinks also earned some gamer cred in early 2021 when he told Stadia to get bent after his Google account was disabled and he was unable to get support. That decision was eventually reversed, but then Stadia collapsed so in the end it didn't really matter anyway.

To be clear, Terraria is not the first game to hit one million positive user reviews, but it is the first sort of 'indie darling' to reach the mark. Games ahead of it on the list include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (5.9 million positive user reviews), PUBG: Battlegrounds (1.2 million), Dota 2 (1.5 million), and Grand Theft Auto 5 (1.2 million). 

But what makes the accomplishment especially impressive is that those positive user reviews come alongside just a little over 22,000 negative reviews, giving it a 97% overall user rating—"overwhelmingly positive," in Steam parlance. It's the only game in the top five to maintain that standard: CS:GO, Dota 2, and GTA5 are all "very positive," while PUBG Battlegrounds is "mixed."