Shell of a King has 100% positive reviews. All thirty of them. And exactly one person playing it right now.

Infinicrypt sits at #17 on Steam’s New Releases chart. Also 100% positive — from four reviews. Also one concurrent player.

These two bullet-hell RPGs launched on April 2nd, both priced around ten dollars, both earning the kind of praise that should make Steam’s recommendation algorithm sit up and pay attention. Instead, they’re ghosts.

One Shell of a King player logged 5.1 hours and wrote that they “had defeated 8 bosses before realizing that you could use money to level up at statues,” calling it “a testament to the game’s impressive build customization and boss design.” Another, with 14.5 hours played, said it was “a hidden gem if I have ever seen one” — their first Steam review ever.

Infinicrypt’s reviews carry the same desperate energy. “A Hidden Indie Gem That Deserves Far More Attention,” reads one. Another player, 32.3 hours deep, simply wrote: “Most random gem ever wtf.”

Here’s the math: over 20,000 games released on Steam in 2025, according to VGInsights data cited by How to Market a Game. Roughly 3% hit 1,000 reviews — the threshold where Valve starts unlocking promotional features like Daily Deals. The algorithm rewards momentum. No momentum, no visibility. No visibility, no momentum.

Not everyone agrees there’s a problem. Game developer a327ex argued in a widely-read blog post that “hidden gems don’t exist” — that if a game isn’t finding players, the market has spoken. “The market is truth,” they wrote. Maybe. But the market can’t speak for games it never surfaces.

Shell of a King has over 20 boss fights, 100-plus items, multiple endings, and NG+. It’s $9.99. Right now, nobody’s playing it. The algorithm has spoken. Doesn’t mean it’s right.

Sources