Steam’s Most Notorious Critic Posts Nearly 20,000 Negative Reviews, Declaring ‘90% of Anything is Trash’

You might not be familiar with Obey the Fist, but many developers behind your favorite games likely are. This notorious Steam account has racked up an astonishing 19,838 reviews on Valve’s platform, and they’re all lengthy and seemingly genuine. Like a Roman emperor deciding the fate of a gladiator with a mere thumbs-up or thumbs-down, OTF delivers its digital verdicts daily. To them, most games on Steam are nothing but garbage, and they believe not enough people are calling it out.

The identity of Obey the Fist remains a mystery. The account has no public information or any known connections to other accounts or websites. Any potential digital breadcrumbs, like old Reddit profiles, have vanished from the internet. Developers who have tried to investigate the account often find themselves accused of stalking. Speculation about OTF’s identity runs rampant.

“I suspect this person is a disgruntled indie developer. They seem quite bitter towards indie games and their creators,” says Danielle Pond, a developer at a studio specializing in puzzle adventure games. When Pond first encountered OTF, the account had only 10,000 reviews, and among them, OTF harshly labeled her game as the worst they had ever played.

Despite their apparent desire for anonymity, OTF may be crafting yet another review as you read this. According to a manifesto pinned on their Steam profile, the negative reviews aim to combat low-effort games that are “slapped together” using stock assets. OTF positions itself as a champion for PC gamers who have invested heavily in their rigs, only to be met with games that insult their hardware. “Most people will agree that 90% of anything is junk. This is certainly true for books in libraries, YouTube videos, reality TV shows… or video games on Steam,” states OTF’s profile essay.

It sounds like a noble cause until you dive into OTF’s actual critiques. The account often targets games made in Godot, a niche engine that lends credence to Pond’s theory about OTF’s possible background as a developer. More notably, OTF has developed a reputation for disliking 2D games. While they do occasionally review popular titles from well-known studios—highlighting a positive review of Hollow Knight among thousands of negatives—it’s primarily indie developers who bear the brunt of OTF’s critiques.

Focusing on smaller games with limited resources, OTF’s extensive review collection might seem justified. Many titles they critique do indeed look subpar or appear to be blatant asset flips created by AI-driven developers. However, given the sheer volume of detailed reviews, some question OTF’s authenticity.

“He couldn’t make it more obvious that he didn’t even play my game,” one frustrated developer commented in a discussion about OTF. Like many, they assume the account is run by a man, but no one can confirm this.

“When I offered to help him play the game or correct the misinformation in his review, he simply quoted that I was ‘breaking Steam’s ToS for responding to a review as a developer,’” the developer added.

OTF’s fixation on indie games sets the stage for inevitable clashes. By mid-January 2026, Valve’s storefront had already seen 493 new games, according to SteamDB, averaging about 32 releases daily during a typically slow month. Half of all Steam games never receive a single review. If you’re the creator of an obscure title that’s barely made a splash, you’re likely to check any reviews. Yet, OTF’s penchant for lengthy and oddly aggressive critiques has left many niche developers confused. Should they be grateful that their game caught someone’s attention, or resentful that a notorious Steam troll seems to be targeting them for clout?

It’s easy to tell someone who has put their creative work out there to toughen up. But if developers struggle to understand OTF, it’s because the person (or people) behind the account appears indifferent to the context of the games they review. One of their latest critiques, for instance, is a lengthy tirade against a free-to-play student project, bizarrely starting with a condemnation of the education itself.

“One of the first things students should be taught in game development is that 3D graphics became mainstream in the mid-1990s with dedicated 3D cards like the Voodoo3 and the ATI Rage,” OTF writes. “But the students were deliberately misinformed that it’s acceptable to release outdated 2D games in the 3D era of gaming.”

There’s also the possibility that Obey the Fist isn’t solely responsible for writing the reviews. Playing multiple games daily and posting about them would require significant time. Even professional gamers struggle to get through a dozen titles in a day. This has led some developers to speculate that OTF might be a bot or that the person behind the account uses AI to generate reviews.

A closer look at OTF’s reviews reveals a pattern of repeated phrases and structures that hint at how they achieve such impressive output. Recent reviews often include a paragraph noting how many concurrent players a game had compared to Steam’s 130M+ user base, suggesting the game is a total failure.

Is Obey the Fist using a tool like ChatGPT? They certainly seem to copy and paste sections of their reviews. I ran some of OTF’s critiques through AI detection tools, and the results were mixed. Some reviews had a 70% chance of being AI-generated, while others were deemed entirely human-written.

If an AI is involved, it hasn’t smoothed out the bizarre fixations evident in OTF’s reviews. There’s an irrationality at the heart of OTF’s crusade that seems rooted in human folly. The more flawed OTF appears, the harder it is to look away.

In 2023, a developer named Wilboforce released a free title called Very Scary Backrooms Game on Steam. It was intended as a parody of the horror games trending at the time, featuring endless, eerie liminal spaces. Most reviewers grasped the joke, appreciating the game for its lighthearted nature. The only one who didn’t seem to get it was Obey the Fist, who tore into the game nonetheless.

“I was amazed that someone could take my little parody game that seriously,” Wilboforce reflects. “Eventually, I thought, ‘wow, this person has put more effort into this review than I did into the game!’”

Wilboforce tried to take the criticism in stride. They had seen OTF’s reviews on other games and were intrigued by the account’s approach. Despite noticing that OTF claimed to have spent an hour on a game that only took 15 minutes to complete, the developer responded positively, telling OTF they appreciated their work. OTF then accused Wilboforce of having main character syndrome.

Much of what we know about Obey the Fist remains enigmatic. Unlike Very Scary Backrooms Game, many titles OTF critiques aren’t free. Presumably, the account holder refunds some games within Steam’s 14-day window if played for less than two hours. However, maintaining OTF’s review volume would likely require spending thousands of dollars. Who would invest so much just to be cruel to obscure games? It seems unlikely that someone with a steady job would have the time for this. Yet the alternative—that OTF is financially secure enough not to worry about money—seems just as improbable.

“There’s still a part of me that believes it’s an elaborate troll, but this would have to be one of the most dedicated trolls of all time,” Wilboforce muses. “So I now choose to believe that Obey the Fist is just really, really passionate about preventing people from wasting their time on bad games.”

Wilboforce’s latest game, the surreal first-person Moaisland, also received a harsh review from OTF. However, the developer doesn’t seem bothered. At one point in the game, players can pet a cat based on Wilboforce’s real-life pet, who passed away a month after Moaisland’s release. The developer is just glad that the memory of their beloved friend lives on through players. Rather than fixating on OTF’s critique, Wilboforce prefers to focus on the reviews that say Moaisland made them smile.

“It’s impossible to focus on any negative reviews if you get even one like that; it’s so heartwarming,” Wilboforce says.

As developers navigate the challenges of having their games scrutinized by OTF, others proudly wear an OTF review as a badge of honor.

“If your game has garnered enough attention for him to review it, you’ve made it,” Pond states.

While Pond doubts that OTF actually plays the games they review and senses a peculiar bias against indie titles, she’s still contemplating whether to send OTF a review code for her upcoming game, Beneath a Night Sky.

“I’ll win you over one day, Obey the Fist!” Pond declares.