How do players who really played Timberborn rate it? TrueGG Rating 97.1%
Players who really played rate it about the same as Steam overall. Early impressions are weaker, so the first few hours tend to decide whether it clicks.
Think twice if you are
- Players who want variety (reports that it gets monotonous)
- Players particular about controls and UI
- Players who want a polished, finished game (reports it feels unfinished)
A rule-based guide from review patterns (no AI). How
vs Steam overall
Positive among players with 20+ hours (last 180 days) · 2,555 reviews
- TrueGG, all time
- 97.7%
- Steam overall
- 96.0%
- Japanese, all time
- 95.8%
Early wall
Reviews written under 2 hours: 2.9% of all reviews. Their positive share is 70.2%.
This is not a drop-off rate; it describes who wrote reviews. Refund guide: within 14 days of purchase and under 2 hours of play (Steam refund policy).
Does the rating change the longer people play?
Positive share by playtime at the time of review (reviews from the last 180 days). Ranges under 50 reviews are pale and dashed (indicative only); “—” means no reviews.
Show chart values as a table
| Playtime | Positive | Japanese | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–1 h | 48.0% | 0.0% | 25 |
| 1–2 h | 61.8% | — | 34 |
| 2–5 h | 88.3% | — | 197 |
| 5–10 h | 93.2% | 66.7% | 249 |
| 10–20 h | 95.0% | 83.3% | 443 |
| 20–50 h | 96.4% | 88.9% | 774 |
| 50–100 h | 97.3% | 100.0% | 661 |
| 100–200 h | 97.5% | 88.9% | 512 |
| 200+ h | 97.4% | 95.2% | 608 |
How long people play: half of reviewers had played 20+ hours. 63% had 20+ hours and 22% had 100+ hours (all time).
Summary
Timberborn has a TrueGG Rating of 97.1%: the positive share among 2,555 reviews written in the last 180 days by players with 20+ hours, close to Steam's overall 96.0%. Players who really play it broadly agree with the headline number (all time: 97.7%).
Reviews written under 2 hours make up 3% of the total, and only 70% of them are positive. Some players bounce off early, but those who get past the opening rate it higher. Steam accepts refund requests within 2 hours of play and 14 days of purchase.
Beyond the first hours, approval is fairly even across playtime.
Negative reviews most often mention updates and the developers, boredom, and freedom (more than at launch).
Among Japanese-language reviews, the TrueGG Rating is 95.8%, similar to all languages.
Re-weighting reviews by trust signals (playtime, length, how the game was obtained) barely changes the rating (95.6% adjusted), so Steam's number is not noticeably distorted by key giveaways or throwaway reviews.
All figures come from Steam's public review counts, and topics are counted with our published dictionary (no AI). Data as of 2026-10-19.
Why it is rated this way
Complaints center on the game's design (Boring / repetitive, Controls, UI & camera). These rarely change with updates, so the rating likely reflects the game itself. Judge by whether it suits you. It is also a game many people bounce off early (early reviews are much less positive than those of players who stuck with it).
− Most mentioned complaints
- Updates & developers19% of negative reviews (12% of positive) · most common among 100h+ players · ongoing since launch · 7 positive reviews say it improved
- Boring / repetitive19% of negative reviews (4% of positive) · most common among under 2h players · ongoing since launch
- Freedom / sandbox11% of negative reviews (4% of positive) · most common among 2–20h players · more than at launch
- Controls, UI & camera10% of negative reviews (1% of positive) · most common among 100h+ players · ongoing since launch
- Unfinished / low effort10% of negative reviews (3% of positive) · most common among 20–100h players · less than at launch
+ What players praise
No standout topics
Counted from 336 recent negative and 600 positive reviews in Japanese and English, using our published topic dictionary. No AI is used. Topics overlap, so shares do not add up to 100%. Sarcasm and nuance are not detected, and this does not show cause and effect.How we count
Checking the numbers
Figures with a different scope, shown alongside the TrueGG Rating.
| Metric | Positive | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Official Steam rating | 96.0% | All time, all languages · 42,209 reviews |
| Adjusted rating | 95.6% | Weighted by trust (95% range 95.5%–95.7%), −0.4pt vs official |
| Japanese-language reviews | 93.9% | All time, Japanese-language reviews (−2.1pt vs overall) · 589 reviews |
Show the positive vs negative breakdown
Share of sampled reviews that meet each condition that lowers trust. When a condition is more common on the positive side, the adjusted rating falls below the official one.
| Condition | Positive reviews | Negative reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Under 2 hours played at review | 1% | 14% |
| Very short text | 32% | 5% |
| Key activated outside Steam | 13% | 13% |
| Received for free | 1% | 0% |
| Owns very few games | 17% | 5% |
| Over 100 reviews written | 2% | 10% |
| Average trust (1.0 = full) | 0.80 | 0.88 |
The median total playtime of the sampled reviewers is 49.8 hours. 400 positive and 400 negative reviews analyzed · data as of 2026-10-19
When did the rating change?
Monthly positive and negative review counts since release, as published by Steam.
Reviews per month
Positive share per month
Months with under 30 reviews are omitted from the rate.
Updates and ratings before and after
| Date | Announcement | 2 months before → after |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-03 | Update 1.1 is live! | — |
| 2026-06-10 | Timberborn 1.1 now live on the experimental branch | 96% → 97% (+1.0pt) |
| 2026-03-02 | Timberborn - One More 1.0 Thing | 96% → 96% (−0.8pt) |
| 2025-11-25 | The new Timberborn Merch Store is live! | 95% → 96% (+0.6pt) |
| 2025-05-08 | Update 7 - Ziplines & Tubeways is live! | 96% → 97% (+0.4pt) |
| 2025-02-05 | Update 7 now on the Experimental Branch! | 97% → 96% (−0.2pt) |
| 2024-12-19 | Update 7 First Look: 3D Terrain and Tubeways | 97% → 97% (+0.5pt) |
| 2024-10-10 | Update 6 - Wonders of Water is live! | 96% → 97% (+0.7pt) |
| 2024-06-25 | Update 6 - now on the experimental branch! | 95% → 96% (+1.4pt) |
| 2024-01-18 | Update 5 - Badwater is now live! | 96% → 95% (−1.6pt) |
Picked automatically from the titles of Steam announcements by the developer (one per month, last 3 years, up to 10). The dotted lines mark those months. Before and after are the positive rates of the two months before and after (excluding the month itself); shown as "—" under 50 reviews or when the two months after are not complete. An update is not necessarily the cause of a change.
Reviews per day, last 30 days
Show monthly data as a table
| Month | Positive | Negative | Positive |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-09 | 2,725 | 140 | 95.1% |
| 2021-10 | 2,139 | 122 | 94.6% |
| 2021-11 | 1,735 | 44 | 97.5% |
| 2021-12 | 1,133 | 56 | 95.3% |
| 2022-01 | 1,204 | 86 | 93.3% |
| 2022-02 | 551 | 33 | 94.3% |
| 2022-03 | 560 | 40 | 93.3% |
| 2022-04 | 530 | 136 | 79.6% |
| 2022-05 | 316 | 25 | 92.7% |
| 2022-06 | 358 | 36 | 90.9% |
| 2022-07 | 467 | 44 | 91.4% |
| 2022-08 | 456 | 30 | 93.8% |
| 2022-09 | 807 | 43 | 94.9% |
| 2022-10 | 482 | 31 | 94.0% |
| 2022-11 | 572 | 27 | 95.5% |
| 2022-12 | 661 | 47 | 93.4% |
| 2023-01 | 562 | 42 | 93.0% |
| 2023-02 | 326 | 15 | 95.6% |
| 2023-03 | 348 | 29 | 92.3% |
| 2023-04 | 404 | 15 | 96.4% |
| 2023-05 | 470 | 26 | 94.8% |
| 2023-06 | 509 | 25 | 95.3% |
| 2023-07 | 356 | 27 | 93.0% |
| 2023-08 | 265 | 19 | 93.3% |
| 2023-09 | 369 | 18 | 95.3% |
| 2023-10 | 500 | 29 | 94.5% |
| 2023-11 | 554 | 18 | 96.9% |
| 2023-12 | 370 | 18 | 95.4% |
| 2024-01 | 788 | 99 | 88.8% |
| 2024-02 | 517 | 31 | 94.3% |
| 2024-03 | 499 | 26 | 95.0% |
| 2024-04 | 392 | 20 | 95.1% |
| 2024-05 | 376 | 21 | 94.7% |
| 2024-06 | 373 | 19 | 95.2% |
| 2024-07 | 692 | 23 | 96.8% |
| 2024-08 | 461 | 21 | 95.6% |
| 2024-09 | 386 | 10 | 97.5% |
| 2024-10 | 767 | 34 | 95.8% |
| 2024-11 | 576 | 13 | 97.8% |
| 2024-12 | 465 | 17 | 96.5% |
| 2025-01 | 416 | 13 | 97.0% |
| 2025-02 | 519 | 15 | 97.2% |
| 2025-03 | 451 | 18 | 96.2% |
| 2025-04 | 429 | 14 | 96.8% |
| 2025-05 | 838 | 35 | 96.0% |
| 2025-06 | 462 | 20 | 95.9% |
| 2025-07 | 444 | 9 | 98.0% |
| 2025-08 | 349 | 22 | 94.1% |
| 2025-09 | 287 | 11 | 96.3% |
| 2025-10 | 401 | 22 | 94.8% |
| 2025-11 | 671 | 23 | 96.7% |
| 2025-12 | 410 | 16 | 96.2% |
| 2026-01 | 458 | 20 | 95.8% |
| 2026-02 | 436 | 13 | 97.1% |
| 2026-03 | 1,842 | 108 | 94.5% |
| 2026-04 | 855 | 38 | 95.7% |
| 2026-05 | 542 | 26 | 95.4% |
| 2026-06 | 483 | 24 | 95.3% |
| 2026-07 | 497 | 18 | 96.5% |
| 2026-08 | 416 | 14 | 96.7% |
| 2026-09 | 606 | 41 | 93.7% |
| 2026-10 | 223 | 9 | 96.1% |
Show daily data as a table
| Day | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-19 | 23 | 0 |
| 2026-09-20 | 27 | 1 |
| 2026-09-21 | 14 | 2 |
| 2026-09-22 | 16 | 1 |
| 2026-09-23 | 12 | 1 |
| 2026-09-24 | 8 | 0 |
| 2026-09-25 | 17 | 0 |
| 2026-09-26 | 11 | 2 |
| 2026-09-27 | 20 | 0 |
| 2026-09-28 | 9 | 1 |
| 2026-09-29 | 16 | 1 |
| 2026-09-30 | 10 | 0 |
| 2026-10-01 | 12 | 0 |
| 2026-10-02 | 18 | 0 |
| 2026-10-03 | 14 | 1 |
| 2026-10-04 | 17 | 0 |
| 2026-10-05 | 18 | 1 |
| 2026-10-06 | 17 | 0 |
| 2026-10-07 | 11 | 0 |
| 2026-10-08 | 13 | 1 |
| 2026-10-09 | 13 | 1 |
| 2026-10-10 | 13 | 1 |
| 2026-10-11 | 7 | 1 |
| 2026-10-12 | 12 | 1 |
| 2026-10-13 | 17 | 0 |
| 2026-10-14 | 9 | 0 |
| 2026-10-15 | 10 | 1 |
| 2026-10-16 | 7 | 0 |
| 2026-10-17 | 10 | 1 |
| 2026-10-18 | 5 | 0 |
Recent sentiment
| Period | Positive | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Last 30 days | 95.9% | 486 |
| Last 180 days | 95.3% | 3,496 |
| All time | 96.0% | 42,209 |
| Japanese, last 180 days | 90.2% | 61 |
See also
Rankings that include this game
Games with a similar rating profile
Yakuza 0 TrueGG 96.7% · Steam 95.4% 
Project Wingman TrueGG 97.2% · Steam 93.8% 
Return of the Obra Dinn TrueGG 98.1% · Steam 96.7% 
EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair TrueGG 97.3% · Steam 95.0% Image: Steam store (© respective owners)
Check another game
About this verdict
Every figure is computed from review data that Steam makes public. No AI estimation is used.
Review text is never stored or republished. Read the actual reviews on Steam.
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