Alien Swarm
Co-operative multiplayer game and complete code base available for free.
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- Released
- 2010
- Developer
- Valve
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- 77
- Steam Deck
- playable
- Download
- Not stated
What is Alien Swarm?
Co-operative multiplayer game and complete code base available for free.
Description as published by the developer on its own store page, read 30 August 2026. It is marketing copy, not our assessment.
The record
| First released | 18 July 2010 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Valve |
| Publisher | Valve |
| Platforms | PC |
| Genres | Strategy, Survival |
| Languages | 1 supported |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata , seeded TBA. Store data from Steam, read 30 August 2026.
How was Alien Swarm received?
Method. Player figures are Steam's own totals for the PC version, read 30 August 2026. The Metacritic score is the one Steam publishes on its store page and can lag the site itself. Metacritic page. Neither is our opinion. We have not published a review of this game.
Accessibility
Seeing
- Color Alternatives
- Camera Comfort
Hearing
- Custom Volume Controls
- Stereo Sound
- Surround Sound
Input
None declared
Difficulty
- Adjustable Difficulty
Method. Features the publisher declared on its own store page. A declaration is a floor, not a review.
What does it support?
| Capability | Support |
|---|---|
| Controller | Not stated |
| Cloud saves | Yes |
| Cross-platform play | No |
| Mod support | No official workshop |
| Online play | Single-player only |
| In-game purchases | No |
| Steam Deck | playable |
| Download size | Not stated |
| Add-on content | None listed |
| Age gate | None |
Content descriptors
- Frequent violence or gore
- General mature content
Method. Read from the publisher's Steam listing on 30 August 2026. Describes the PC version. Console versions differ.
What does it cost?
Steam price in US dollars, read 30 August 2026. Prices move hourly and vary by region. Check the current price.
Is Alien Swarm worth it?
95% of 21,612 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Very Positive. It is free to play, and critics score it 77/100. About 23 people were playing at once when we last checked, so it is still active.
That is the data, not a verdict for sale: whether it is worth it depends on the price you pay and what you want. We have not published our own review of this game.
How long is Alien Swarm? How long to beat it
Total play time for Alien Swarm is about 20.9 hours to do everything, and around 3.5 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 3.5h | 36 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 12.4h | 15 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 20.9h | 8 |
Alien Swarm is free to play, so the only cost is your time: about 3.5 hours to beat it.
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Alien Swarm system requirements
The minimum requirements from Alien Swarm's Steam page. These are what it takes to launch and be playable, not to run at high settings.
| Memory | 1 GB RAM (other games at this level) |
|---|---|
| Processor | Pentium 4 3.0GHz |
| Graphics | DirectX 9 compatible video card with 128 MB · runs on a low-end GPU |
Where Alien Swarm sits on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueAlien Swarm plotted on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so its position is its real one. Change either axis to see where it lands.
1 games have both
Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.
Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.
- PC
Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.
How positions are decided
No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
- Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
- Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
- No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
- A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
- Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.
Is Alien Swarm still active? Players right now
Alien Swarm has a small, niche following: 23 people were playing at once when we last read Steam on 19 October 2026. This is a snapshot, not a live counter, and it is a recent concurrent reading rather than an all-time record. For what is trending across the catalogue right now, see the pulse.
How many people own Alien Swarm
This is an estimate, not a sales figure, and the two are not interchangeable. SteamSpy samples public profiles and publishes a range; the range here spans a factor of 2.5, and that width is the honest part of it. We show both ends rather than a midpoint, because a midpoint would look like a measurement.
Steam only. Console and storefront sales are not counted, so a game that sold heavily elsewhere reads low here. Read on 19 October 2026. Where a publisher has announced a real unit figure, that appears separately and carries its source.
Alien Swarm price & deals: is it on sale?
We have one reading so far: Free on 30 August 2026. Prices are checked daily from here, and this becomes a chart once there is more than one point to join. A single observation is a price, not a history.
What readers say about Alien Swarm
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
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Did it run on your PC?
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Where Alien Swarm appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Alien Swarm qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Games like Alien Swarm
24 games overlap with Alien Swarm on the tags Steam players applied to it, on genre, and on theme. The closest are HELLDIVERS Dive Harder Edition, Predecessor and Aliens vs. Predator.
Alien Swarm head to head
See Alien Swarm compared side by side, on score, price, specs and more:
Common questions about Alien Swarm
What platforms is Alien Swarm on?
Alien Swarm is available on PC. It first released in 2010.
Is Alien Swarm free?
Yes. Alien Swarm is free to download on Steam.
Do players recommend Alien Swarm?
95% of 21,612 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Very Positive. That is players rating it, not our review. We have not published a review of this game.
What is the Metacritic score for Alien Swarm?
77 out of 100 for the PC version, as published on the game's own Steam store page. Steam can lag Metacritic by a few points.
Does Alien Swarm work on Steam Deck?
Valve rates Alien Swarm as playable on the Steam Deck, from its own testing.
Who made Alien Swarm?
Alien Swarm was developed by Valve and published by Valve.
Is Alien Swarm worth it in 2026?
95% of 21,612 Steam reviews are positive (Very Positive), and it is free to play. That is the strongest signal we hold; "worth it" depends on the price you pay and what you want, so weigh the sentiment against the current price above.
Is Alien Swarm dead?
No. About 23 people were in-game at once when we last read Steam's concurrent-player figure. Peak activity is higher; this is a recent snapshot, not the all-time peak.
What are the system requirements for Alien Swarm?
At minimum, Alien Swarm needs 1 GB RAM, a Pentium 4 3.0GHz, a DirectX 9 compatible video card with 128 MB, from its Steam listing. That is what it takes to launch and be playable, not to run at high settings. Check it against your own PC on the can-I-run page.
How long does it take to beat Alien Swarm?
about 3.5 hours for the main story, 12.4 hours with the main extras, 20.9 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.