Garry's Mod
Garry's Mod
Game
Game2023
Chillquarium
Developer Ben Reber
Chillquarium is a cozy and relaxing idle game. Buy fish and raise them in real time, then sell them to turn a profit! Customize your aquarium as you progress from a simple starter tank to your dream setup by filling your collection with rare exotic fish and ultra-rare color variants! From the Steam store page
290 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Nov 4, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
74
Fresh
186 positive · 64 negative
95% range 69–79%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 186 | 64 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 14 | 1 | 19 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
5,467 of 5,838 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
74% recommend · 157 yes, 56 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 213 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (7,760 of 8,438 positive).
Players find it a relaxing idle game for collecting fish. [1][2][3] Some enjoy it as a background activity while working or studying. [4][5][6] Others criticize it for being shallow, grindy, and time-gated. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
I like the art a lot, but I wouldn't call this an incremental game. Also, as far as Idler games goes the game system isn't very interesting at all. Very redundant: the loop is buy fish - feed fish - sell fish. No new mechanics are introduced to spice it up, and even within that loop there aren't really fun upgrades. I like the different fish rarities (painted, golden, rainbow) its fun, but when the reward is just a …
- [1]
I bought this game for the cozy vibe You got a tank- you buy card pack- you unlock fish You wait for fish to grow Fish make money passively I saw this game and said to myself "I wonder if it has shrimp" And few packs in- the game blessed me with Shrimp I am stunned- i am crying, the game heard my calls and gave me what i wanted Getting a colorful shrimp is like RNG and loot box heaven- not hard to make coins A Baby …
- [2]
Chillquarium is the gaming equivalent of putting your brain in airplane mode. There are no bosses trying to kill you. No teammates screaming at you. No ranked mode. No giant dinosaur eating your hard-earned belongings. There are just fish. You buy fish. You watch fish. You make money. You buy more fish. That's basically the entire game, and somehow I've spent way more time doing this than I would like to admit. The …
- [10]
Chillquarium is pure cozy vibes with a dangerously addictive achievement hunt. It’s super chill, but once you start chasing 100%, you’ll find yourself opening pack after pack, hoping this one finally has that last missing fish. Relaxing, simple, and quietly unhinged in the best way.
- [3]
Really relaxing game. If youre someone looking for instant gratification, this is NOT for you. But if you want to have a relaxing background visual and chill music while doing chores/tasks, this game is so good. It doesnt overstimulate and it helps me slow down. Love unlocking fishies too!
Summarised from 34 of the 254 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Chillquarium sits at 74% positive across 250 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 290 · most liked firstI bought this game for the cozy vibe You got a tank- you buy card pack- you unlock fish You wait for fish to grow Fish make money passively I saw this game and said to myself "I wonder if it has shrimp" And few packs in- the game blessed me with Shrimp I am stunned- i am crying, the game heard my calls and gave me what i wanted Getting a colorful shrimp is like RNG and loot box heaven- not hard to make coins A Baby could play this, its that simple 10/10 Would buy this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the art a lot, but I wouldn't call this an incremental game. Also, as far as Idler games goes the game system isn't very interesting at all. Very redundant: the loop is buy fish - feed fish - sell fish. No new mechanics are introduced to spice it up, and even within that loop there aren't really fun upgrades. I like the different fish rarities (painted, golden, rainbow) its fun, but when the reward is just a checkbox on the collection log and higher gold per hour than the normal varient,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It feels like a free-to-play game, even though it isn't. The moment you open it, you're prompted in the corner to buy another game, which only makes it feel even more like one. There's basically zero content as well, this game honestly feels like nothing more than shovelware.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →6/10 Fun while working, it stays on in the background, it doesnt offer a ton of content, just idle fish collecting game. There are more fun idler games out there like cookie clicker.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is very time-gated, with nearly zero things you can do to make anything better or fun. The fish are fun to watch for a bit, then dull as you chase the 0.1% fish you never catch as the days—yes, DAYS—pass by. This is not a game you play; this is not a game you will enjoy after 5 hours played. As getting the fish as you get closer to the last 10% of a pack and waiting for X money before you get the "better" pack is dull and gets old fast. I would've forgiven the flaws if the game had…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →10 More inspiring Indie Games Made in Godot. Landnama, Voidspike, Lingo, Memortal, Chillquarium, Crawlscape, Too Many Sheep, Blank Relish, SpaceshipWrecked, Somnipathy
neutral · AI labelView post →This game, all of the code and all of the assets are completely ai generated and that is not disclosed, this software is extremely buggy and it makes me severely worried about what the code is actually doing on my computer. It wants you to keep the game open while you endlessly feed your fish, that's a great game mechanic if your game is secretly a crypto miner. Valve as a platform needs to ai detect every upload and forcibly label things that are ai, ai generated. The vulnerabilities in the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feesh! If you want to autofeed, place your cursor about a third or more down into the sand so they can't circle around the food. If you're gonna tab out, keep the game in windowed mode, use alt tab after opening another window, and your cursor will stay put and continue to autofeed your feesh. Feeshies earn money in real time while the game is closed or open. Enjoy!~
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chillquarium does not have a fishing minigame because it is a *fish* game!! #chillquarium #indiegame #gaming #videogames #fishing #fishingminigame
neutral · AI labelView post →Honestly really underwhelimg, even for an idle game. Theres nothing to do outside of holding right click and waiting. Mostly youll open the game, sell fish and buy new ones and close it again to wait for the big fish to grow up. Not fun sadly.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Next on the list of cool #Godot games you own that unlock stuff in our upcoming game #Skillet is Chillquarium. Calm, chill, and pixelated. Plus that water will help if you catch fire in the skillet. store.steampowered.com/app/2276930/...
positive · AI labelView post →Not a lot to say here. An incredibly grindy creature collector that has an aquarium concept. It’s fine to play idly but there’s not much there. Even having it as a background app is a bit meh compared to its competitors as the music and visuals are pretty cartoony and basic. DO NOT attempt the 100% unless you’re prepared for pain. + The Golden Ticket is the best QoL in this game. They make getting golden fish an absolute breeze. You will have infinitely more pain getting Painted fish. + I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This idle game is very shallow and one note. Nothing like keeping an aquarium. No breeding, no tank design, and encourages an endless cycle of buy and sell. The species are little more than colorful dollar signs of various value. Draw a picture of a fish and write "$1" next to it. Now cross it out and draw a slightly more colorful picture of a fish and write "$2" next to it. That's the entire game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →very cute little game you can get a lot of time out of it for the price if you like the demo you'll have fun with the rest of the game it's also been updated since the pictures on the store page, there are more packs of fish and the ui looks better i definitely recommend turning on the "fewer clicks" setting --- pros: - art style is cute and reminds me of wii play fishing - pretty and nice to look at, fish movement is relaxing and i imagine it would be nice to have idling on a second monitor…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →!!STEAM AUTUMN SALE POST!! Chillquarium does not have a fishing minigame, but it is a fish *collecting* game!! #chillquarium #indiegame #gaming #videogames #fishing #fishingminigame
neutral · AI labelView post →FINALLY got that last golden fish for 100% :D cute game, i enjoy having it on my screen while i do something else as a background like reading or drawing or studying, love decorating the aquarium and picking my favourite fish designs/patterns to keep! i especially like the extra rarity of rainbow fish they look so cool lol the process of trying to 100% is repetitive bc the final golden rarity fish of each pack will take a while to come up but it's an idle game where you get randomised fish,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Today's Oarfish comes from Chillquarium! This is a idle game that you can find on Steam where you buy fish and raise them in real time, then sell them to turn a profit or keep them around to earn more money! #underwater #sealife #marine #fish #Oarfishdaily #marinelife
positive · AI labelView post →The odds suck ... opened 1000's of packs which takes days ... without getting the missing fish needed for the archievements ... what odds is it ??? 1 in 49 000 000 000 to get some of those fish !?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's nothing "chill" about this. It's got the min-maxing anxiety of stardew valley combined with the endless card-pack-opening-chase-hunt of pokemon tcg. I hate this game and I can't stop playing it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Extremely grindy, not engaging and not fun. It's also not an incremental game at all.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The upgrades are deliberately spaced and priced to keep this game open and you opening tedious fish packs as long as possible. It's satisfying enough for a while, but once you have 3 fresh and 2 salt tanks things slow down, become tedious and frustrating. I'm not even close to the end, I've collected over a month of idle profits, and I'm burnt out before I've even seen half of the fish. It's just all spaced way too far apart, which I guess is fine if you really just want a desktop aquarium, but…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If youre thinking this is Insaniquarium then you'd be wrong. The gratification is extremely slow, often taking a few real life days to unlock the next item. If that kind of idle game is up your alley then go for it! But if you're looking for something you can engage in by clicking or planning things then this isn't it. The fish are various, and the colors are cool but they dont have any personality or unique animations.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →art and music is nice. not the type of idle game i was looking for; has trouble running in the background, more of a "close the game and come back later" which I didn't get from the demo.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →10 games to get to know me better: Silent Hill 3 Carrion Chillquarium Stardew Valley Pokemon Emerald Bloodborne Skyrim Viva Pinata Resident Evil Untitled Goose Game
neutral · AI labelView post →Chillquarium is the gaming equivalent of putting your brain in airplane mode. There are no bosses trying to kill you. No teammates screaming at you. No ranked mode. No giant dinosaur eating your hard-earned belongings. There are just fish. You buy fish. You watch fish. You make money. You buy more fish. That's basically the entire game, and somehow I've spent way more time doing this than I would like to admit. The best part is how ridiculously relaxing it is. You can…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →pleasantly mindless game with pretty colors and nice fishies. Nice music, the money numbers are a bit silly, and rainbow fish are a bit too rare, but I liked it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game feels like it has a lot going for it. However this feels extremely shallow for what it is. The upgrade costs are significantly high, the growing speed for some fish is extremely slow. There is nothing to do outside of holding down the right click button for feeding. You don't even really take care of the fish. Genuinely for $5.99 buy Tiny Aquarium, it is a better game across the board.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun second monitor game to use as a screensaver as you play and build your aquariums. It is a very low level to maintain and is best if you work on it for 5-10 minutes then let it sit for a day or two then check again or just let it sit and idle. I am very excited for their upcoming game which is basically this, but birds. I have put quite a few hours in but am nowhere near unlocking the large amount of fish available.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really relaxing game. If youre someone looking for instant gratification, this is NOT for you. But if you want to have a relaxing background visual and chill music while doing chores/tasks, this game is so good. It doesnt overstimulate and it helps me slow down. Love unlocking fishies too!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is super fun and, as the titles says, very chill! I love coming home from work and checking on everything. Fun upgrades, fun ways to decorate your tanks, and a huge variety in fish and rarities! Highly recommend!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Genuinely the least interesting game I've ever played. It's a true idle game in the worst way possible. Buy fish, wait for them to grow in real-time, sell them or wait for them to earn passive money once they are adults. Buy new tanks, upgrade tank sizes, buy new packs of fish. That is essentially the entire game. You can manually feed the fish to make them grow faster but this *very* quickly becomes an unrealistic way of playing it'd take you hours to make the valuable fish grow that way,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chillquarium is your live wallpaper, where you can choose (once unlocked) from lots of water creatures to fill your digital aquarium. It calms me down while looking at it and it makes me feel at peace, especially when doing some work or other things. Collecting the good achievable achievements is also very pleasing, definitely would recommend!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's like a booster pack simulator but FISHES. Love that devs made a few changes to make the game 100%-ing easier.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →On the face of it, just what it sounds like. Basically a trading card / pokemon collector game wrapped up in an idle clicker (mostly idle) with many fish in several categories to find and collect over time. And note those last two words.... Do not play this for quick achievements, you will cry and curse. Do not play this as a main game or actively or you will get extremely bored no matter how brain-addled screen-starey you are. It's best played underneath whatever else you are doing with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hello! My next entry in my "chill games recommendations" comes in the form of Ben Reber's Chillquarium! I don't even like fish, but I have over 70 hours in this game. Read more to find out why... betterletethannever.blogspot.com/2025/02/reco... #indiegames #gamerecs
positive · AI labelView post →I was really torn about whether to give this game a thumbs up or a thumbs down, because there are genuinely things I really like about this game. The art is super cute, the vibes are great, and I clearly have put a good number of hours into it. I bought the game on sale, and I don't regret it for the price I paid. However, I can't help but find the actual gameplay to be lacking. It's not bad, but it's not good either. There's not really much game, and it's also something where you can get so…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the game certainly lives up to the title as it is a very laid back game all about collecting fish. I really enjoyed how hands off it was as it allowed me to hop on every few days to check on the progress of my fishes growth, unlike in other games where you have to have it running in order for progress to happen.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Shout out to @benreberdev.bsky.social maker of Chillquarium (a cozy and relaxing idle game) for adding the accessibility setting "fewer clicks" ❤️ Made it easier to play they game, even tho I have pain in my hands today! Shows that no game is too small or too big for accessibility 🐟
positive · AI labelView post →The "chill" part is refering to how it asks you to wait an occasionally absurd length of real time (up to 7 days) for your newest fish to start making money. The game allows a feeding mechanic to speed up the process, by five second increments. Up to a maximum of thirty seconds, once you're deep enough in to have afforded the billion dollar upgrade, which is about four tiers of fish deep out of seven. It's an idle game that doesn't want you to play it. But it also doesn't want you to not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Adorable idle game! The art style is very cute, and the choices of fish are unique. It doesn't ramp very quickly, but just watching all of my fish swim around is great :3
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →hello Im.🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐡🐠🐠🐡oh🐡🐡🐡🐡🐡🐡🐡🐠🐠🐟🐟🐟🐟oh yeaHo h yeah fish.🐟🐟🐟🐟
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The chance to pull the rare fishes needed for the achievements or to finish a collection is too low. With no automated processes, this is ultimately a frustrating experience.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Barely a game at all. You fill the tank with fish, save/exit. Come back later. Sell fish, buy more fish, repeat. Not a whole lot to this game. Quite literally the most barebone idler ever. Just not a whole lot to look forward to.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a simple chill game with fish. I recommend this game if you like fish are okay with idle clicker games. My favorite part is that there are no microtransactions, so you actually have to do that work.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Man I love when my idle game with 0 meaningful upgrades just turns into refreshing the same pack over and over again to get the 1 mythic I missed. Very game. Much Upgrade
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chillquarium is pure cozy vibes with a dangerously addictive achievement hunt. It’s super chill, but once you start chasing 100%, you’ll find yourself opening pack after pack, hoping this one finally has that last missing fish. Relaxing, simple, and quietly unhinged in the best way.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →even for an idle experience this might be the least game ive ever encountered. left it running for like 2 weeks but it became a chore to check on the fish before long. extremely grindy game, dissatisfyingly slow progression too.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chillquarium isn't really a game, it's more like a collectibles scheme. You toss it on, do the necessary, save and quit, rhan come back in a week to offload the low-value fish, restock your tanks, and cross your fingers that the rare ones finally bubble up from the bunch. You can sit there for hours trying to cycle through packs and still not get the fish you want so I'm not going to "play" it like that.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cant recommend even for 1$ This game looked fun, but really it is sad. The tanks are a mess, the whole process of the game is cluttered and unorganized there is a tank sort option but no way to select many fish of low lvl to sell so you are forced to hunt and peck each fish ONE BY ONE and let me tell you that... isnt fun once you get 1000 fish scroll through a terrible system to remove low paying fish just this game needs to be free even then .. its sad the gfx suck too either go pixel fish…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is peak the progression is pretty fast and the game runs smoothly it has new content to unlock through in game paywalls and is extremely difficult. would recommend to dark souls/Elden ring fans.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Still playing Voxelgram, but I added Chillquarium and Oxytone to the mix.
neutral · AI labelView post →Anything where it doesn't matter if I get distracted at any given point, e.g. turn-based or otherwise non-time-sensitive games. * Incremental games (Chillquarium, Pegidle, Synergism, etc.) * Powerwash Simulator * Geotastic (with time limit turned off) * Slay the Spire, or other deckbuilding roguelites * Dominion * FTL: Faster Than Light / Multiverse * Civilization VI * Picross/Piczle Cross and similar games
neutral · AI labelView post →This is such a chill background game. THE MUSIC IS INCREDIBLE! Honestly, I rarely ever even like game music that much, but the soothing guitar music, I've kept this game open in the background most of the time no matter what I've been doing. I'll progress if I feel like it, but most of the time I just have it open for the music, it's just so chill and soothing. I would highly recommend it for the music alone, but the game itself is also really good. I haven't heard of some of the fish in this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very easy and enjoyable game. I had this on the background of my computer throughout lecture in college, and I thought the progression was fair. A lot of silly little fish designs that are very nice to look at. The only thing I would want from this is more freedom with designing the interiors of the tanks.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wasn't planning on spending too long with Chillquarium today. My intention was to play for around 30 minutes just to get a feel for the game, but before I knew it I'd spent closer to 45 minutes simply relaxing while watching my aquarium slowly come to life. That's probably the biggest compliment I can give it. It isn't a game that's trying to overwhelm you with constant objectives or fast-paced gameplay. Instead, it encourages you to slow down, collect fish, feed them, watch them grow and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A chill and therapeutic idle game involving fish. This is one of those games where you turn it on and let it run in the background while you're busy with other things that you have to do. You feed fish and they make money for you; rinse and repeat till you're rich to buy fish that make more money. The fish are somewhat cute and is just a great game to relax to, but then again, most idle games do that, but this one is neat since it's always nice to just stare at fish all day.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly, im now around halfway done with achievements (47%) There is two kind of people A) those that want the achievements and B) those who dont fixate them or dont care about it much I belong to group A, i want all achievements if its possible and not a hassle like "speedrun" sth or similar annoying things This game is a hassle You open packs over and over and over and... just want that one painted mythic so you can start farming the golden fish of that pack-series its good to play for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like fish and I like collecting things...so this is a pretty good game for me. I actually like birds more than I like fish though, so I want to support this developer so he releases their bird collector sequel.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this is a cute idle little game. Are the sprites cute? Absolutely. Is the music relaxing? For sure. But thats where the praise ends for this game. It is very overpriced for a $6 game. Even on sale. This plays like a $1-$2 game. It takes entirely too much time to upgrade anything or to make any money in the game. It takes hours to get even 1 achievement and to 100% it would be a total slogg. Just leave this game on the shelf, there are tons of other cute cozy games to play and wind…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's really chill just like the name implies, fish don't die if not fed (and actually grow faster if fed a lot, optional), it's a booster pack opening game really. So if you like to try and collect a variety of cute little swimming critters, this game's for you.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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