What Never Was overview

Acke Hallgren | Jan 11, 2019 | game

Released

2players observed · 21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC

Adventure Casual Free To Play Indie Free to Play Steam Store

Latest observed players2 · 21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC
SteamPulse tracked peak8
Units sold (VGI)192,000
Revenue (VGI)No data available
Review score95% positive

What Never Was dated player observations, monthly player trends, reviews, and game metadata are tracked on SteamPulse.

Latest observed players2 · 21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC
SteamPulse tracked peak8
Units sold (VGI)192,000
Revenue (VGI)No data available
Review score95% positive
Total reviews5,072
Release dateJan 11, 2019
DeveloperAcke Hallgren
PublisherAcke Hallgren

Genres: Adventure, Casual, Free To Play, Indie

Company pages: Developer: Acke Hallgren Publisher: Acke Hallgren

Top Steam charts Top 100 games Game directory Steam Store page

Game overview

Overview

What Never Was comes from Acke Hallgren and is published by Acke Hallgren. It arrived on Steam on Jan 11, 2019, and it sits naturally among Single-player, Steam Achievements, Partial Controller Support, and Family Sharing. SteamPulse tracks it across Windows, macOS, Linux, and Steam so readers get a quick useful snapshot, not just a wall of numbers.

Players and reviews

What Never Was's latest SteamPulse observation recorded 2 players at 21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC, with a tracked peak near 8. This peak is the highest value in the available SteamPulse record and may not include activity before tracking began. Player reaction is 95% positive across 5,072 reviews.

Language and system requirements

What Never Was is available in 1 languages including:

English languages with full audio support

3 regional rating boards including dejus, steam germany, and igrs

Platform	Type	OS	Processor	Memory	Graphics	Storage
Windows	Minimum	Not listed	Dual Core Processor, 2.5 GHz or higher	4 GB RAM	DX11 compatible video card	700 MB available space
macOS	Minimum	OS X 10.12.6	Not listed	Not listed	Metal compatible graphics card	Not listed
Linux	Minimum	Ubuntu 18.04	Quad-core Intel or AMD, 2.5 GHz or faster	8 GB RAM	NVIDIA GeForce 960 GTX or higher	Not listed

Sales, recommendations, and streams

What Never Was has sold up to 192,000 units and has recommendation data pending. Revenue data is not available for this game yet. On Twitch, 0 streamers are live with around 0 total watchers.

Detailed game overview

What Never Was overview details

What Never Was combines live player counts with reviews, pricing, platform support, Store metadata, dated player history, media, recent news, and related games.

Steam Store description

Sometime in the late 2000s, Howard James Wright - an old but kind man - perishes. Leaving behind him many adventures, relics he's collected over the years as well as books authored, he is also leaving Sarah, his granddaughter behind. Having to shoulder the arduous task of clearing out her grandfathers attic, she is soon to find that not everything about her grandfathers attic is what it seems. What Never Was is a short, story-driven first-person game focused on exploration and puzzle-solving. You play as Sarah Elizabeth Wright, exploring through your grandfathers attic, solving small puzzles and uncovering the story through gameplay. What Never Was aims to combine the gameplay of classic point-and-click games with the control schemes of modern adventure and walking sim games. It is inspired by the likes of Myst, Indiana Jones and The Longest Journey and borrows themes from folklore, Norse mythology, and works from authors like H.P. Lovecraft. The game is the first solo game and passion project of game developer Acke Hallgren with the support of a handful of supportive creatives.

SteamPulse editorial summary

What Never Was is listed as a game with Free to play. It supports Windows, macOS, and Linux, belongs to Single-player, Steam Achievements, Partial Controller Support, and Family Sharing, and is associated with Adventure, Casual, Free To Play, and Indie. SteamPulse's latest observation records 2 players at 21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC, a tracked peak of 8, and 95% positive reviews.

Overview facts

Field	Value
Game	What Never Was
Steam App ID	866440
Type	game
Release date	Jan 11, 2019
Developer	Acke Hallgren
Publisher	Acke Hallgren
Price	Free to play
Platforms	Windows, macOS, and Linux
Genres	Adventure, Casual, Free To Play, Indie
Categories	Single-player, Steam Achievements, Partial Controller Support, Family Sharing
Supported languages	English * * languages with full audio support
Website	Official website

Player and review overview

Metric	Value
Latest observed players	2 · 21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC
SteamPulse tracked peak	8
Positive reviews	4,796
Negative reviews	276
Total reviews	5,072
Positive percent	95%
Review type	Very Positive
Recommendations	Not available
Average playtime	54 minutes

SteamPulse record freshness

Field	Value
Steam release date	Jan 11, 2019
Official Steam feed update (UTC)	14 January 2021 - 12:25:20 UTC
SteamPulse last record update (UTC)	21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC
Live player count updated (UTC)	21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC
Store metadata updated (UTC)	21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC

Overview tags

Free to Play Adventure Puzzle Indie Story Rich Singleplayer First-Person Casual Mystery Exploration Female Protagonist Point & Click Atmospheric Short Relaxing

Highlighted achievements

Achievement	Description
Back Together	No description
A Pirate's Life For You	No description
Observer Of Rare Antiquities	No description
Collector	No description
Sassy Pig	No description
What Never Was	No description

Support and legal notes

Field	Value
Support email	[email protected]
Support URL	Not available
Legal notice	Not available

References

Official and third-party reference links for checking this Steam app outside SteamPulse.

Reference	Link
SteamPulse canonical	https://steampulse.org/game/866440
Steam Store	https://store.steampowered.com/app/866440/
Steam Community	https://steamcommunity.com/app/866440
PCGamingWiki search
IGDB search	Search IGDB for What Never Was

Game FAQ

Real questions answered from SteamPulse data, including live players, monthly momentum, review sentiment, regional audience signals, Twitch activity, and current Steam pricing.

What is the latest observed Steam activity for What Never Was?

What Never Was's latest SteamPulse observation records 2 players at 21 September 2026 - 21:47:33 UTC, with a tracked peak of 8 concurrent players in the available SteamPulse record. SteamPulse also records about 1 hours of average lifetime playtime.

Is What Never Was growing or declining recently?

September 2026 is still in progress. The month-to-date average is 2 players; the highest observed daily value is 5 players. Available values are provisional and will continue changing until the UTC month closes. The completed comparison month is August 2026.

What country-level audience data is available for What Never Was?

In the observed sample of public reviewer profiles with a visible country, the leading shares are United States (36.9%), United Kingdom (7.7%), Australia (6.2%). The separate directional player-region model assigns its leading shares to United States (31.9%), United Kingdom (6.9%), Australia (5.3%). The directional follower-region model assigns its leading shares to United States (41.7%), United Kingdom (6.9%), Australia (5%). The directional wishlist-region model assigns its leading shares to United States (28.4%), China (6.8%), United Kingdom (6.4%). Only the reviewer view is based on observed public profile countries; the other percentages are modeled relative weights, not verified account locations or country-level user counts.

What does the Steam review footprint look like for What Never Was?

What Never Was currently sits at 95% positive across 5,072 Steam reviews tracked by SteamPulse, including 4,796 positive reviews and 276 negative reviews. Steam labels the current review summary as Very Positive.

How much follower and Twitch attention does What Never Was have?

What Never Was currently has about 9K tracked Steam followers as of 23 January 2026 - 00:00:00 UTC. On Twitch, SteamPulse is matching roughly 0 live viewers across 0 active streams for the game's category.

What is the current Steam price for What Never Was?

What Never Was is currently listed as free to play on Steam, so there is no paid entry price to compare against an older baseline. SteamPulse still keeps tracking store state, discount fields, and future pricing changes in case that status changes later.

Reviews, pricing, and metadata

Review summary

Very Positive

95% positive, 4,796 positive, 276 negative

Price and discount

Free to play

Platforms

Windows, Mac, Linux

Categories

Single-player, Steam Achievements, Partial Controller Support, Family Sharing

Achievements

Platform releases

Steam 11 January 2019

System requirements

Minimum requirements

Minimum: OS *: Windows 7 64-bit (requires 64 bit OS) Processor: Dual Core Processor, 2.5 GHz or higher Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: DX11 compatible video card DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 700 MB available space

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