The Banner Saga
Fair · RPG · 2014
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
WAIT.
Fair today. The Winter Sale opens Dec 17, and it was discounted in 6 of its last 8 seasonal sales; 85% in the Winter Sale 2025.
Today
$24.99Fair
Typical seasonal cut
$3.7485% offWorth it
- Cost per hour▼
- $2.34/hr
- ReviewsA
- 89% of 15,981
- Critics
- 80 players 9 higher
- Genre rank
- Top 9% RPG
Holding it back: Cost per hour
Why
Watch this gameOne alert at $3.74 or less.
Time and effort
- Main story
- 10.7h
- To 100%
- 30.1h 2.8x the story
- Finish
- 19% reach the ending
- Achievements
- 39
Price and sales
- Sales
- 76 on record
- Typical cut
- 80% off
- Steam low
- $1.59 February 2021
- Sale every
- 46d last June 2026
Players and genre
- Online
- 12 now
- Cheaper than
- 7% of its genre
- Better reviewed
- 93% of its genre
Price and player charts
The drop-off
91% start to 19% finishA normal fall-off for a game this long. Steam global achievements
The value story
The value story
February 2021 is where it bottomed out, at $1.59. Across all 76 discounts in the 13 years tracked, the median cut is 80 percent, about 7 weeks apart.
Its score sits in the top 9 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 93 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 93 percent. Among the games that feel like it, The Banner Saga 2 ($24.99, scores 65) beats it on value, while it beats The Banner Saga 3 ($24.99, scores 43).
More about The Banner Saga
Critics scored it 80. Players sit 9 points higher at 89 percent, which usually means a game that plays better than it reviews.
Steam's global achievement data puts about 19 percent of players at this game's ending achievement. On a 10.7-hour game, the hours short of it still count in its price per hour. Of the 800 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 1 comes from a buyer who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written April 2020 to October 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 63 percent of the 657 reviews written there were positive, against 89 percent overall, and those are 5 percent of everything written about it.
10.7 hours to finish it, 30 to exhaust it. The completionist tail is 2.8 times the campaign.
Valve rates it Steam Deck Verified, and at 10.7 hours it is short enough to finish on one.
Buy now or wait
Buy now or wait
Next discount: likely in the Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4, at about $3.74 (85% off). Predictions like this were right 87% of the time when tested on 70 past weeks.
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
Grades: S best, D weakest
S is the best grade and D the weakest, judged as a buyer. ▲ raises the score, ▼ lowers it, ? is an input we do not have, • is a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
What players say
Really mixed on this one. I think this game has a lot going for it, but it just doesn't quite go anywhere. I think the best part of this game is the writing. It is just incredible and this world is truly amazing and very interesting. But everything else just kind of sucks. Combat is boring, camping management sucks, and that's basically just this entire game. I loved the ending and how choices actually matter. I...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
Other reviewers have already pointed out all the negative aspects of this game. I agree with all of them. It's boring, repetitive, the combat system makes no sense, and certain events are designed to punish the player for no reason, since they don't even provide the basic information needed to understand what's going on. I really can't understand how it could have so many positive reviews and even have raised so...
Very early in at the time of review, but where a lot of games can only excel in grand overarching story, this games moment to moment writing is off the charts good.
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
About the game
Live through an epic role-playing Viking saga where your strategic choices directly affect your personal journey. Make allies as you travel with your caravan across this stunning yet harsh landscape. Carefully choose those who will help fight a new threat that jeopardizes an entire civilization.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, 4 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS.
Cite this score
The Banner Saga scores 63/100 on the BANG Score (fair value) as of Nov 8, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/237990/the-banner-sagaReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Oct 13, price as of Nov 7. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.