Published on: 27/07/2022

Stray Dethrones God Of War On Steam

The newly released Stray has reached record heights in review rating, dethroning God of War as the highest-rated game on Steam.

Stray is a puzzle-adventure game about a lost cat trying to reunite with her family, who goes on adventures as it explores a futuristic, urban landscape. The game was developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna Interactive. It gathered extremely high user reviews and critical acclaim shortly after its release, especially on the Steam storefront.

Stray’s accessibility has been cited as one of the biggest reasons the game is so successful. The premise is lighthearted, and the gameplay is simple and intuitive. Players can easily dive into the game and complete it without needing to invest a large amount of effort or time into learning the game’s systems. Plus, its compatibility with the Steam Deck means anyone interested in the title can set aside a few hours and enjoy the game.

An overwhelming majority of players who finished the game (98 percent) have left positive reviews on the storefront. God of War, meanwhile, has 97 percent positive reviews. On Steam250, a website that tracks user reviews, Stray has a rating of 8.61 after 43,000 reviews. One of the year’s biggest releases, Elden Ring, is much lower on the list but has over 500,000 reviews.

It is up to anyone’s guess whether Stray will stay on top over the course of the year, but even if God of War could reclaim its former position, it doesn’t change the fact that Stray has been a commercial and critical success on all fronts. Footage of cats watching Stray gameplay going viral also helps — the Twitter account @catswatchstray, which dedicates itself to sharing such videos, has gained over 32,000 followers over a relatively short time, significantly improving the visibility of the release.

About Stray’s developer/producer

BlueTwelve Studio is a French games company founded by Colas Koola and Vivien Mermet-Guyenet. As the founders’ independent first game, Stray had been in development since 2015, when it was previously titled HK_Project. In December 2016, the founders received enough funding to create the BlueTwelve Studio company and hire three additional people. The team, throughout the development of Stray, used their own pet cats for inspiration and as references for the game’s animations and gameplay elements — the game’s feline protagonist itself is based on Murtaugh, the stray cat that the studio picked up. Stray would then be released on July 19, 2022, for Windows, Playstation 4 and Playstation 5.

The publisher, Annapurna Interactive, is a games publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company is an offshoot of Annapurna Pictures in its attempt to branch into the video game industry. It mainly publishes games from independent developers such as What Remains of Edith Finch, Due Process and Twelve Minutes. To celebrate the game’s release, it partnered with Cat’s Protection and Nebraska Humane Society by hosting Stray giveaways as an incentive for donations.

Despite Stray’s wild success, as of the present, neither the developer nor the publisher has commented on the game’s achievement, and BlueTwelve Studio has not announced any future projects or post-launch content for the game.

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