One-off purchase
X-COM: UFO Defense cost to play
What X-COM: UFO Defense costs on Steam UK, its USK and ESRB age ratings, and how many people still play it on Steam.
X-COM: UFO Defense gameplay, images and trailer
© 2K, X-COM: UFO Defense Steam store page
The short version
- From £2.99: Cheapest standard price: X-COM: UFO Defense (Steam UK, standard price)
- One-off price: Bought once; no store currency or random items on this page
- 73 Steam peak: Peak concurrent players on Steam, last 30 days (Steam Charts)
- USK 6: Age rating
- Released
- 1 March 1994
- Developer
- MicroProse Software, Inc
- Publisher
- 2K
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation, PS3, Linux, Android, iOS, Mac, Xbox 360
- Age rating
- USK 6
- Genre
- Strategy
- Modes
- Single-player
On this page
X-COM: UFO Defense player count
Concurrent players on Steam, from Steam Charts, read 28 Oct 2026.
- Peak, last 30 days
- 82
- Peak, Sept 2026
- 86
- 38 on average
- Change vs Aug 2026
- +7%
- monthly peak
- All-time peak
- 641
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page.
Is X-COM: UFO Defense dead?
Very quiet on Steam: X-COM: UFO Defense peaked at 86 players at once in September 2026. Peaks are down 20% on the three months before. These are Steam players only; people playing on PlayStation, PS3, Linux, Android, iOS, Mac, Xbox 360 or other PC stores aren't counted, so the real number is higher.
| Month | Average | Peak | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 2026 | 38 | 86 | +7.5% |
| August 2026 | 39 | 80 | +0.0% |
| July 2026 | 40 | 80 | −12.1% |
| June 2026 | 43 | 91 | −10.8% |
| May 2026 | 49 | 102 | −10.5% |
| April 2026 | 53 | 114 | +15.2% |
| March 2026 | 42 | 99 | +13.8% |
| February 2026 | 43 | 87 | −2.2% |
| January 2026 | 42 | 89 | +11.3% |
| December 2025 | 38 | 80 | −3.6% |
| November 2025 | 41 | 83 | +1.2% |
| October 2025 | 41 | 82 | – |
What X-COM: UFO Defense costs to play
| Item | Price | Per | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| X-COM: UFO Defense (Steam UK, standard price) | £2.99 | game | store.steampowered.com Checked 21 Oct 2026 |
How X-COM: UFO Defense is rated
GamesChart Score
82.4, #356 of 3,236 rated games
#5 of 1994 · #27 of the 1990s · #23 in Tactical · #262 on PlayStation
Critics
Players
Built from 3,428 ratings across 3 of 5 sources (no Wikidata or RAWG rating). Critics and players count 50/50. Ratings pulled 5 November 2026.
Where it sits in the ranking
- #355
Inscryption2021 · Daniel Mullins Games82.4 - #356
X-COM: UFO Defense1994 · Mythos Games82.4 - #357
Star Wars: Battlefront II2005 · Pandemic Studios82.4
X-COM: UFO Defense questions
How much does X-COM: UFO Defense cost in the UK?
X-COM: UFO Defense (Steam UK, standard price): £2.99. Prices checked 21 October 2026.
Is X-COM: UFO Defense free to play?
No. X-COM: UFO Defense is not free to play: you buy the game to play it.
What age rating is X-COM: UFO Defense?
X-COM: UFO Defense is rated USK 6.
How many people play X-COM: UFO Defense?
Peak concurrent players on Steam, last 30 days (Steam Charts): 73, checked 21 October 2026. Its all-time Steam peak is 641.
What is X-COM: UFO Defense's all-time Steam peak?
641 concurrent players on Steam, the highest Steam Charts has recorded for X-COM: UFO Defense (read 28 October 2026). The peak in the last 30 days was 82. Players on other stores and consoles aren't counted.
Is X-COM: UFO Defense dead?
Very quiet on Steam: X-COM: UFO Defense peaked at 86 players at once in September 2026. Peaks are down 20% on the three months before. These are Steam players only; people playing on PlayStation, PS3, Linux, Android, iOS, Mac, Xbox 360 or other PC stores aren't counted, so the real number is higher.
Do these X-COM: UFO Defense player numbers include consoles?
No. The player counts on this page are Steam only (Steam Charts, read 28 October 2026). People playing on PlayStation, PS3, Linux, Android, iOS, Mac, Xbox 360, through Game Pass or on other PC stores aren't counted, and publishers rarely publish those figures.
Who makes X-COM: UFO Defense?
X-COM: UFO Defense is developed by MicroProse Software, Inc and published by 2K.
X-COM: UFO Defense is a strategy game in which you run a secret organisation defending Earth from alien attack: you manage bases, research and funding on a world map, then fight turn-based tactical battles. It was developed by MicroProse and first released in 1994 for DOS PCs. The version sold on Steam UK is published by 2K and came to Steam on 4 September 2008. It is sold at a one-off price.
How it plays
X-COM: UFO Defense is a single-player strategy game. The player is in charge of X-COM, an organisation formed by the world's governments to fight an ever-growing alien threat.
Shooting down UFOs is only the start. The player then leads a squad of heavily armed soldiers across different terrains to investigate the crash site in close-combat battles, using automatic rifles, rocket launchers and even tanks to recover technology, weapons or alien life forms.
Between missions, X-COM scientists analyse the alien items brought back. Each breakthrough brings a better understanding of the aliens' technology and culture, and with enough research X-COM can manufacture weapons and craft to match the UFOs. The player makes every key decision and also has to watch world politics, because governments may be forced into secret pacts with the aliens and then cut X-COM's funding.
What it costs
At standard price X-COM: UFO Defense costs £2.99 on Steam UK. Steam also sells it inside the X-COM: Complete Pack at £8.99 at standard price. Both were 75% off on the day we checked; we record the standard prices. There is no DLC.
Players
On 21 October 2026 Steam Charts showed a 30-day peak of 73 concurrent players and an all-time peak of 641. Steam Charts only counts the Steam version.
Age rating
The Steam UK store data shows USK 6 for fantasy violence and ESRB E for mild animated violence. We didn't find a PEGI rating for this game.
It ranks #356 in our best games of all time ranking.
How we checked
The price and age ratings come from the Steam UK listing, read on 21 October 2026, at standard price. Player figures are from Steam Charts on the same day. The gameplay description is based on the publisher's Steam store page.
Card art and page images: screenshots from 2K's X-COM: UFO Defense Steam store page. © 2K. All trademarks belong to their owners. GamesChart is not endorsed by or affiliated with 2K.
Official links: Steam
Games like X-COM: UFO Defense
Sources
- Card art and page images – X-COM: UFO Defense Steam store screenshots (2K), published by store.steampowered.com
- Steam UK – X-COM: UFO Defense, published by store.steampowered.com
- Age rating – X-COM: UFO Defense (Steam UK store data, USK and ESRB), published by store.steampowered.com
- Steam Charts – X-COM: UFO Defense, published by steamcharts.com
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