7 years into its legendary comeback, No Man's Sky claws back another 1% on its Steam review score: "I never thought it possible, but guys we might hit 'Very Positive' one day"

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It took 5 years just to hit 70% positive reviews

No Man's Sky
(Image credit: Hello Games)

No Man's Sky remains one of the greatest comeback stories in the industry, a shaky launch entirely reversed by nearly a decade of meaningful and entirely free support. More than a dozen expansions later, however, and despite a new game on the way, game director Sean Murray is still yearning to improve the game's reputation.

In a tweet yesterday, nearly eight years after the initial release of No Man's Sky, Murray announced that the game's Steam review score had just ticked up to 78% positive. He also revealed that it had taken five years for the game to reach Steam's 'Mostly Positive' rating, which is unlocked when 70% of reviews recommend a title. No Man's Sky reached that marker in 2021, which means that it's taken around three years for it to gain the next 8%.

That's a pretty impressive trajectory, but the redemption arc will get shallower over time. Murray points out that "mathematically each % point is much harder to gain than the last." From one perspective, that could mean that No Man's Sky has done well to find that 8% over just three years, but for Murray, it seems to suggest that the pace of change is likely to slow down. Nevertheless, it's possible that at some point, perhaps even in the not-too-distant future, that No Man's Sky will finally tick over to the 'Very Positive' threshold of 80% - something that Murray says that he once "never thought [...] possible."

After that, the next goal would be 'Overwhelmingly Positive', which is unlocked at 95% positive reviews. At the current trajectory, however, that would take at least six years. There's always the chance that with the continuation of its regular update cadence, No Man's Sky might finally hit that target, but with the studio's new game, Light No Fire, on the horizon, that does seem like a distant goal.

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Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.