Prison Architect ▶ Trailer
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IndieSimulationStrategyBuildingSandboxBase BuildingColony SimManagement

Prison Architect

Only the world’s most ruthless Warden can contain the world’s most ruthless inmates. Design and develop your personalized penitentiary in Prison Architect.

Developer
Introversion Software, Double Eleven
Publisher
Paradox Interactive
Franchise
—
Release date
Oct 6, 2015
Store page updated
Sep 30, 2025
Price
$29.99 · Steam store ↗

Review Analysis Score

76.3/ 100

Based on 403 reviews from the past 1 year

Steam User Rating
Recent 🙂 Mostly Positive 80% of 186
All time 😄 Very Positive 89% of 73,850
“one of favourite games, takes hours seamlessly”

How it holds up

−50+5
Gameplay
+1.48
Freedom +3.90
“full customization and control of prison complex with strategic depth” (38)
Первое, что меня зацепило, это возможность полностью контролировать и кастомизировать тюремный комплекс. Можно создавать уникальные зоны, распределять ресурсы и оптимизировать процессы. Игра реалистично моделирует различные ситуации. Например, когда случается пожар или драка, нужно быстро принимать решения и действовать. Инвестиции и инновации тоже важны. Можно получать финансирование от государства и тратить его на улучшение условий содержания, борьбу с инфекциями и организацию труда. Эффективный менеджмент еще один плюс. Подбор персонала, включая охрану, врачей и психологов, действительно вл

🔒 5 more indicators

Story & World
+2.75
World +3.28

🔒 2 more indicators

Content Volume
+2.33
Volume +3.14
“almost endless game with many ways to play” (8)

🔒 2 more indicators

Visuals & Sound
+1.06

Not enough data — only 7% of reviews mention this.

Visuals +1.11

🔒 1 more indicators

Multiplayer
-0.57

Not enough data — only 3% of reviews mention this.

Playing together -0.40

🔒 1 more indicators

Fairness
-2.26
Monetization -2.11
“mechanics locked behind DLC paywall, classic predatory monetization” (40)

🔒 3 more indicators

Tech & Ops
-2.71
Stability -3.34
“crashes at startup after update, unplayable” (64)

🔒 3 more indicators

Scores are the average of reviews that mention each category (−5 to +5). Fainter bars were mentioned by fewer reviews; grey means too few to trust. Tap a category ▾ to see what drives it.

Steam review activity

% positive over time
since launch, by month · major update DLC
40%60%80%100%
Mar 2013Sep 2026
Reviews
per day · 182 reviews, peak 17/day
01020
Aug 19Sep 16

Steam only gives daily counts for the last 30 days; longer ranges are by month. Months with fewer than 10 reviews are left out of % positive. "Show updates" marks major updates and DLC the developer posted on Steam (since about 2020) — hover a column to see % positive the month before and after.

Review languages

Languages of the 403 reviews we analyzed from the past year — not all Steam reviews.

  • English64%
  • Chinese7%
  • Russian6%
  • Spanish5%
  • French4%
  • Turkish3%
  • Other10%

🔒 Scores broken down by language — how Russian or Chinese players rate each category — are in the paid dashboard.

Recommended games

Games players rate highly for
Tech & Ops
:

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All 25 indicators, 3-month and 6-month trends, and per-language breakdowns — in the dashboard.

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