Hidden gems on Steam
Updated
Games sitting at 80% or higher positive review ratio but fewer than 5,000 total reviews — the gap where the Steam algorithm tends to lose visibility. Right now that's 50 qualifying titles across the catalogue, and this list surfaces the strongest ones ranked purely by review score. Selection criteria: at least 100 verdicts to rule out statistical noise, fewer than 5,000 to stay below the mainstream radar, and 80% positive or better to confirm real quality. Unlike Steam 250's top-rated lists, which weight total vote counts heavily and therefore surface high-volume popular titles over quieter ones, imho.run ranks by positive ratio first — so a 200-review gem at 95% positive beats a 4,000-review title sitting at 81%. Both thresholds are checked daily: newly acclaimed titles appear the next morning, and anything crossing the 5,000-review line graduates off the list automatically and moves into the broader catalogue rankings.
Top picks
01Finding Paradise
Two doctors traverse backwards through a dying man's memories to fulfill his last wish. This is To the Moon's standalone sequel, but can also be played first.
2017IndieAdventure9.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
02Is This Seat Taken?
Is This Seat Taken? is a logic puzzle game where you play matchmaker for groups of hilariously particular people. Each character has pet peeves that make seating them a delightful challenge. Find the perfect spot for each person to unlock new levels in this cozy, silly, and relatable experience.
2025IndieCasual9.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
03Dagon: by H. P. Lovecraft
Face unspeakable horrors. Succumb to madness. Welcome to a free daemonic narrative experience inspired by H. P. Lovecraft.
2021IndieAdventureFreeDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
04Easy Delivery Co.
Easy Delivery Co. is a relaxing driving game with strange secrets. Chill out, make deliveries and get to know the mysterious residents of this scenic mountain town, all while earning well below minimum wage.
2025IndieSimulation12.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
05Creature Kitchen
A creepy-cozy cooking simulator where you befriend local wildlife and feed them their favorite snacks! With a strange house to search and forest to explore, the witching hour has only begun.
2026IndieSimulation7.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
06Animal Revolt Battle Simulator
The ultimate physics-based, sandbox battle simulator where you can create funny battles between all sorts of ragdoll creatures! You can also make your own monsters with the unit creator or even join the battles yourself in the first-person mode!
2022ActionStrategy14.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →- Try the recommender →
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07Retro Rewind - Video Store Simulator
Manage your very own video store in the early 90s! Rent, sell, decorate and expand your business from the ground up and relive the golden ages of video rentals!
2026IndieSimulation19.90 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
08Supraland
Try the demo! A mix between Portal, Zelda and Metroid. Exploration, puzzles, terrible combat, secret upgrades and new abilities that help you reach new places. Playtime 12-25h.
2019ActionIndie19.99 USDSimilar games →
09Monster Train 2
Monster Train returns with all new clans, new enemy factions, new challenges, new modes and more! Defend your Pyre in the classic three-tiered, vertical gameplay that made the original roguelike deckbuilder a hit.
2025StrategyIndie18.74 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
10Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
ERASE YOUR PAST TO PROTECT YOUR FUTURE Once a legendary yakuza, Kazuma Kiryu faked his own death and abandoned his name for the sake of protecting his family. Now, he is thrust into conflict by a mysterious figure attempting to drive him out of hiding.
2023ActionAdventure49.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
11The NOexistenceN of you AND me
Use "game" as a medium to showcase the world of "you/girl". Explore the truth of "you/girl/world" through the form of a "visual novel".
2024IndieAdventure1.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
12Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Dark Crusade
Deep under the central desert of Kronus, a vast honeycomb of skull-lined tunnels and funeral chambers house the awakening Necron menace. Eons ago, these were the boulevards and squares of a great necropolis built to house the bones of the races who had fallen to the Necrons, and ultimately were where the Necrons themselves retire to...
2007StrategyDeck PlayableSimilar games →
13Airships: Conquer the Skies
Construct mighty steampunk airships and fly them into battle, waging war and conquering the skies!
2018ActionStrategy24.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
14Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015: Do You Still Shower With Your Dad
"Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015: Do You Still Shower With Your Dad?" is a fast paced shower-simulation where you shower with your 8-bit dad.It's good, clean fun!
2015ActionIndie0.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
15Insaniquarium Deluxe
The craziest aquarium game ever! Tend to your fish, keep them happy and they'll reward you with coins and jewels. Buy tank upgrades or egg parts which hatch different in-tank pets. These pets can help you feed your fish, collect coins, or even protect against the aliens that will invade your tank.
2006Casual0.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
16Touhou Luna Nights
Touhou Luna Nights is a Metroidvania title with a heavy emphasis on exploration and action. Developed by Team Ladybug, creators of multiple fantastic action games thus far.
2019ActionIndie17.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
17Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
Solving crime is no walk in the pond. You are a down-on-his-luck detective who also happens to be a duck. Use your powers of de-duck-tion to inspect evidence, fill in the blanks, and bust the case wide open! This is a short but twisty detective case.
2024IndieAdventure9.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
18BlazBlue Centralfiction
Combining a 2D fighting game with a visual novel, the BlazBlue series continues on with massive fan support! The latest installation, BlazBlue: Centralfiction, serves as the ending to the Azure Saga, revealing the hidden truth of the world!
2017Action39.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
19BOKURA
BOKURA is a two-player puzzle adventure game. Play as two boys who ran away from their homes and work together to take yourselves somewhere far, far away. Relive the friendship of your childhood through the journey of two boys.
2023ActionIndie5.49 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
20Disfigure
Disfigure is a grim-dark action rogue-like where you battle relentless hordes of monsters lurking in the shadows. Unlock powerful weapons, craft god-like builds with hundreds of upgrades, slay colossal bosses, and push your limits in intense 20–30 minute survival runs!
2023ActionIndieFreeDeck PlayableSimilar games →
21SANABI
SANABI is an exhilarating stylish dystopian action-platformer. Play as a legendary retired veteran and use your signature prosthetic arm to jump over cliffs and skyscrapers, zip through bullets and traps and defeat powerful enemies.
2023ActionIndie9.74 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
22GUILTY GEAR Xrd REV 2
Astonishing 3D cell animations and overwhelming content volume, the next-generation fighting game "GUILTY GEAR Xrd REV 2" is now out on Steam! Total cast of 25 unique characters, and tons of game modes, get ready to ROCK!
2016Action29.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
23MULLET MADJACK
MULLET MADJACK is a HIGH-OCTANE-ACTION SHOOTER that put you directly inside a CLASSIC ANIME. Pick your favorite weapon and reach the last floor; Beat your best time or try again. Haste makes waste… OF YOUR ENEMIES!
2024ActionIndie19.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
24Severed Steel
An intense single-player FPS featuring a stylish movement system, completely destructible levels, and an acclaimed OST.
2021ActionIndie24.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
25Paper Lily - Chapter 1
Paper Lily is an RPG horror game in which you can solve puzzles in different ways. Explore a hidden world, meet strange characters, and guide Lacie as she attempts to find answers about her unusual condition.
2024IndieAdventureFreeDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
26Two Point Museum
Curate and manage incredible museums! Explore to discover amazing artifacts. Design and refine the layout, keep staff happy, guests entertained, donations plentiful… and children off the exhibits
2025StrategyIndie29.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
27Esoteric Ebb
Esoteric Ebb is a single-player CRPG inspired by the freedom of tabletop adventures. Unravel a political conspiracy with your goblin sidekick. Roll dice in tense encounters. Become a cleric of legends or completely ruin the campaign.
2026IndieRPG24.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
28Kingdom Rush - Tower Defense
Get ready for an epic journey to defend your kingdom against hordes of orcs, trolls, evil wizards and other nasty fiends using a vast arsenal of towers and spells at your command!Fight on forests, mountains and wastelands, customizing your defensive strategy with different tower upgrades and specializations!
2014Strategy9.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
29Mortal Sin
Mortal Sin is a chaotic, blood-soaked roguelike where skill is power, and overconfidence is death. Carve through procedurally generated nightmares with brutal melee and flashy, satisfying combos.
2025ActionIndie24.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
30Poly Bridge 2
The acclaimed bridge-building indie-hit is back! More levels, more features, more physics fun!
2020IndieSimulation14.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
31Sticky Business
Experience the joy of running your own cozy small business: Create stickers, pack orders and hear your customers’ stories. Time to build the cutest shop on the internet!
2023SimulationCasual9.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
32VVVVVV
VVVVVV is a platform game all about exploring one simple mechanical idea - what if you reversed gravity instead of jumping?
2010ActionIndie4.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
33The Roottrees are Dead
A genealogical mystery straight out of 1998. Scour the early Internet for clues, uncover hidden connections, and piece together the family tree behind the secretive Roottree Corporation.
2025Adventure19.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
34The Lab
Welcome to The Lab, a compilation of Valve’s room-scale VR experiments set in a pocket universe within Aperture Science. Fix a robot, defend a castle, adopt a mechanical dog, and more. Still not sold? It’s free!
2016Free To PlayFreeSimilar games →
35Judgment
Fight for the truth and uncover the twisted crime running deep beneath the surface of Tokyo. In this legal thriller , the balance between justice and mercy teeters on the edge.
2022ActionAdventure39.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
36DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH
Sam – with companions by his side – sets out on a new journey to save humanity from extinction. Join them as they traverse a world beset by otherworldly enemies, obstacles and a haunting question: should we have connected?
2026ActionAdventure69.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
37Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling
Follow Vi, Kabbu, and Leif as they uncover the secrets of the Land of Bugaria! Explore and combine your team's abilities to solve puzzles, defeat powerful enemies and find ancient treasures!
2019ActionIndie19.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
38Z.A.T.O. // I Love the World and Everything In It
USSR, 1986. A girl goes missing in the closed city of Vorkuta-5, yet not a soul seems to be concerned. Uncover the mystery behind her disappearance and transmit your signal to the universe.
2025IndieAdventureFreeDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
39Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
"Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp" brings you more of the world's best (and maybe only?) multiplayer dating sim; but in a way you've never expected!
2020IndieSimulation11.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
40Turbo Overkill
Enter Paradise as Johnny Turbo—half-metal, half-human, all-murder machine. Clean up the streets with a chainsaw leg, 15+ weapons and your hovercar as you battle the rogue AI Syn, rival bounty hunters and cyberpunks aplenty. Apogee’s most outrageous FPS since Duke Nukem 3D. Good hunting, Sir!
2023ActionIndie19.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
41Cast n Chill
Cast n Chill is a relaxing fishing game where you explore serene lakes, rivers, and oceans. Catch rare fish, upgrade your gear and reel in legendary catches - all with your loyal companion by your side.
2025SportsIndie14.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
42Tiny Bookshop
Leave everything behind and open a tiny bookshop by the sea in this cozy narrative management game. Stock your tiny bookshop with different books and items, set up shop in scenic locations, and run your cozy second-hand bookshop while getting to know the locals.
2025IndieSimulation19.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
43ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist
Decades after the events of ENDER LILIES, Homunculi — sorrowful, artificial life forms — roam the land. In this dark fantasy Metroidvania, face formidable enemies and explore a bewitching post-apocalyptic world. Humans and Homunculi — what awaits at the end of the quest for their salvation?
2025ActionRPG13.74 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
441000xRESIST
1000xRESIST is a thrilling sci-fi adventure. The year is unknown, and a disease spread by an alien invasion keeps you underground. You are Watcher. You dutifully fulfil your purpose in serving the ALLMOTHER, until the day you discover a shocking secret that changes everything.
2024IndieAdventure19.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
45Manifold Garden
Rediscover gravity and explore an Escher-esque world of impossible architecture. Witness infinity in first-person and master its rules to solve physics-defying puzzles. Cultivate a garden to open new paths forward, where an eternal expanse awaits.
2020IndieAdventure19.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
46Kindergarten 2
Welcome to Kindergarten 2, which takes place on Tuesday! After the events of Monday, you'll find yourself in a new school with new friends...and new ways to get ruthlessly murdered.
2019IndieAdventure14.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
47Desperados III
Desperados III is a story-driven, hardcore tactical stealth game, set in a ruthless Wild West scenario. Play smart if you want to succeed. A good plan can make the difference between survival and finding yourself at the business end of a pistol.
2020Strategy39.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
48BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER 3: I OPENED A PORTAL TO HELL IN THE FAVELA TRYING TO REVIVE MIT AIA I NEED TO CLOSE IT
A BRAZILIAN BOOMER SHOOTER GAME MADE USING THE ID TECH 2 ENGINE! SHOOT, JUMP, EMBARK ON A JOURNEY THROUGHOUT THE STATE OF RIO DE JANEIRO, HELL AND EVEN HEAVEN! SAVE BRAZIL!
2025ActionIndie4.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
49Minami Lane
Welcome to Minami Lane! Build your own street in this tiny cozy, casual management sim! Unlock and customize buildings, manage your shops, and maximize the happiness of your villagers to complete quests and fill your street with love!
2024StrategyIndie4.99 USDDeck VerifiedSimilar games →
50Hypnospace Outlaw
Greetings Enforcer, and thank you for enlisting in the Hypnospace Patrol Department! As the world falls into its slumber, Hypnospace becomes a bustling global village. These virtual streets aren't going to police themselves!
2019Simulation19.99 USDDeck PlayableSimilar games →
Frequently asked
- What makes a game a hidden gem on this list?
- A high review score combined with a small audience. The cut-off is 80% positive or better on Steam, and at least 100 player reviews but fewer than 5,000 — enough verdicts to trust the signal, but small enough that mainstream discovery surfaces haven't picked the game up yet.
- How are hidden gems different from cult classics?
- Cult classics are old games with a small but devoted following over years. Hidden gems on this list are current — they're rated highly by today's reviewers and may have launched recently or just been ignored. Some go on to become cult classics; many stay quiet forever.
- When does a hidden gem graduate off the list?
- When its review count crosses 5,000 it's no longer hidden by audience-size definition, so it leaves this list and moves into the broader rankings. The Hidden gems list is therefore self-cleaning — yesterday's gems either grow out of it or disappear if their review score drops below 80%.
- How often is the hidden gems list refreshed?
- Once per day. New high-score, low-volume releases enter the next day; graduates and titles that lose their score floor fall off. imho.run's catalogue is rebuilt daily from the public Steam APIs.
Want picks tuned to your own library? Sign in with Steam on the home page and imho.run will rank the catalog against everything you own.