Sort Them Ducks Review
A Very Positive tidy-up game about 4,015 ducks — repetitive on purpose, rough at the edges, easy to recommend if you want calm.
Sort Them Ducks is a $5.99 Steam cozy sim from Mr.Duck, released 13 August 2026, and sitting at Very Positive — about 83% of 126 Steam purchaser reviews, with a larger all-language pile beside them. Launch-week store still showed an introductory 10% (about $5.39). You sort about 4,015 unique rubber ducks onto themed shelves in a single shop. You earn money. You buy upgrades. You watch chaos become a display. If that sentence already bores you, this is not your genre. If that sentence lowers your shoulders, you are the audience.
This review is a buying guide, not a substitute for Getting Started. Pair it with the walkthrough after you own the game, and with known issues so launch-week bugs do not surprise you.
What works
The loop is honest. Pirates with pirates. Superheroes with superheroes. Food with food. The HUD name while you hold a duck is a small piece of mercy other tidy-up games sometimes withhold. Carry climbing from five toward twenty is a real progression curve without pretending you unlocked a skill tree of lore. Timed skills (reveal shelf, highlight matches, fill-from-hand) make the last third feel clever instead of cruel.
Costume variety is the star. Reviewers who live in this genre still stopped to stare at outfits. Ducks boop you. The shop visually completes, which is the dopamine the Steam page promised. Sessions fit a podcast or an audiobook. There is no fail state. Steam Cloud and controller support are on the box. Deck players have finished runs.
Compared with louder library-sorting titles, this one is gentler: fewer mean puzzles, more toy catalog. Treat Your Geek was disappointed that many designs are essentially two rows each — easier, calmer, and a taste thing. Respawning scored the shop 8/10 for people who want to switch off. That is a compliment if you wanted to switch your brain off. It is a warning if you wanted a mystery dungeon.
The let’s-play footage in the middle of this page is a real opening hour. If the pile looks like work you want, buy it. If it looks like a chore you already do at a job, skip it.
What scrapes
Repetition is the design. You will pick up, walk, place, for hours. Frame rate can dip when the camera faces a dense unplaced mountain, even on strong PCs. Graphics options are thin. Window aisles can haze. Ryzen users needed a special launch option for flashing and black screens. Controller jump and zoom FOV needed Patch 1. A save hotfix refunded upgrades after that patch. Tower color mix-ups locked some 100% attempts. Music mix and UI prompts still get complaints.
None of those are secret. They are why this wiki exists. They are also why a 83% Very Positive score is not 95%. The developer is answering reviews, which matters more in a $6 game than a polished silence.
Who should buy it
Buy Sort Them Ducks if you liked tidy-up games, rubber toys, or any sim where the map gets cleaner. Buy it if you have an evening and no interest in combat. Wait if you need story, if launch bugs ruin your week, or if your hardware already struggles with object-heavy first-person scenes and you refuse to cap FPS.
There is no second player in the shop at launch. Some reviews asked for that later. Today it is a single-player toy box. System requirements on paper look steep for the art style (GTX 980 Ti in the minimum line); real laptops still run it if you lower the cap. Read performance if that sentence scared you.
Verdict
Recommended for cozy fans. Easy to finish, easy to over-stay, easy to forgive. Use upgrade order so the repetition accelerates. Use missing ducks if the last shelf lies. Then put the wiki away and let the quacks be the soundtrack. That is the best version of this game.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the questions players ask after a long sorting session.
Is Sort Them Ducks worth $6?
If you like tidy-up games, yes. Steam is Very Positive at about 83% of 126 purchaser reviews. You get a full shop, upgrades, and about an afternoon to six hours.
Is it too repetitive?
It is repetitive on purpose. Upgrades make the same action faster. If you need plot or combat, skip it.
Are the launch bugs deal-breakers?
They annoyed people. Patch 1 and a save hotfix already shipped. Check known issues before you refund in panic.
Does it have a story?
No campaign plot. The story is the shop getting clean. Costumes and eggs are the jokes.