Five Popular Indie Games You Might Have Missed This Week

This week a handful of indie games, such as Citizen Sleeper 2 and Rift of the Necrodancer, found audiences on Steam. Maybe some of these will be right for you.

Matt Buckley

February 6, 2025 13:12

Source: Klei Publishing, Fellow Traveler, KAFI

This week, several small indie games had a promising launch on Steam, and they could have been easy to miss. No one would blame you if Steam’s number one top seller Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was taking up a lot of your time these days. You can read our review if you haven’t caught up yet. But in case some of the AAA games are not exactly what you’re looking for right now, there might be an up-and-coming indie game from this week that flew under your radar.

Indie games continue to impress on Steam, there might be a great game you have missed

The number fourteen on Steam’s top sellers chart today is Rift of the Necrodancer. This is Brace Yourself Games’ follow up to Crypt of the Necrodancer, their debut title from 2015. But you might recognize this developer from The Legend of Zelda collaboration they released back in 2019, Cadence of Hyrule. Rift of the Necrodancer is a rhythm game, following in the tradition of Brace Yourself’s previous titles. Navigate the modern world while also repairing rifts and fending off the surge of monsters through musical combat.

At the time of writing, Rift of the Necrodancer has nearly two-thousand concurrent players, which is impressive for a single-player rhythm game in the middle of a weekday. Looking at the reviews, the picture comes together that this is a game worth spending time on. The game currently sits at 82/100 on OpenCritic and 98% positive player reviews on Steam out of nearly five-hundred reviews.

Rift of the Necrodancer is available now on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.

FlyKnight is a small game about an insectoid knight fighting to end a curse that prevents the realm from growing wings. After being released on the last day of January, this debut game from developer Wabbaboy, hit a peak of nearly three-thousand players over the weekend. The game has been praised by players for its retro-style visuals and chaotic co-op experiences. The game’s Steam page also advertises “limb-based combat” where players can limit an enemy’s actions by severing an arm or two, or three, or four. Y’know, since they’re all insects?

Currently, this game is so underground that it doesn’t even have a Metacritic or OpenCritic page yet, but Steam players have spoken over the last week, giving FlyKnight a 96% positive score based on well over two thousand player reviews. Even today, at the time of writing, there are still nearly a thousand players in-game.

FlyKnight is available now on PC via Steam.

Despite launching on Xbox Game Pass, the follow up to indie hit Citizen Sleeper has still managed to find an audience on Steam. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector comes from developer Jump Over The Age and indie game publisher Fellow Traveler. Citizen Sleeper 2, like the original, is a dice-drive RPG based in a heartfelt sci-fi world. While it might not have the most action-packed gameplay, it will still keep you on your toes as you make tough choices to survive in an unforgiving galaxy.

At the time of writing, Citizen Sleeper 2 has hundreds of players online, and within the last week, hit a peak of over one thousand. For a game that is available on nearly all platforms, including Game Pass, it’s impressive to see the numbers still reach a high like that on Steam. Citizen Sleeper 2 has an 86/100 on OpenCritic and 93% positive player reviews on Steam based on over four hundred players.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. You can also find it on Xbox Game Pass.

Released today, Keep Driving is described as “an atmospheric management RPG about life on the open road.” Hitting number sixty-eight on Steam’s top sellers list on the day of its release, this small pixel-art game has already started to find an audience. At the time of writing Keep Driving hit its peak number of players eight minutes ago and appears to still be climbing. Players will just keep driving as they encounter various decision points and challenges such as picking up hitchhikers, fixing the engine, and navigating obstacles on the road.

Keep Driving currently sits at 96% positive reviews on Steam, but only out of 59 total reviews so far, so that could change in the coming days. But if you’re looking for a game about exploring the open road, this might be the one for you. There are only four critic reviews so far on OpenCritic, but they are all impressive, with two of them scoring Keep Driving as a 10 out of 10.

Keep Driving is available now on PC via Steam.

Finally, even though it technically launched on Steam eight days ago, developer KAFI’s The Headliners has already made a name for itself. I really had to resist the urge to make a “headlines” pun there. This chaotic co-op horror game has players take on the role of a reckless journalist, risking life and limb in pursuit of the next big scoop. Explore a city full of deadly creatures and do your best to stay alive.

The Headliners reached a peak of over six thousand concurrent players a few days ago, but has remained relatively consistent all week, with four-thousand players in-game at the time of writing, which I will say again, is the middle of a weekday. There are currently no reviews posted to OpenCritic or Metacritic, but Steam players gave The Headliners an 86% positive score out of nearly two thousand player reviews.

The Headliners is available now on PC via Steam.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

January 31, 2025

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