It’s no secret at this point that Hollow Knight: Silksong’s launch has been a smashing success. The latest data highlighting the metroidvania game’s strong start comes from Alinea Analytics, which states that the Hollow Knight sequel has already seen more than 5 million players since releasing September 4.
Alinea’s head of marketing analysis Rhys Elliot wrote on Substack that Silksong sold over 3 million copies on Steam in just three days. In addition, Elliot detailed that of the 5 million people playing the game, 1 million of them accessed it through Xbox Game Pass on console. All in all, it’s “the single biggest indie launch we’ve ever tracked in that time period,” per Elliot, especially factoring in the $50 million generated from Steam.
Another intriguing aspect of the Alinea report looks into previously played games for Silksong players on Valve’s storefront. For example, 78% also checked out the original Hollow Knight, while 32% had played Celeste. Keep in mind, though, there isn’t tracking for people possibly playing those titles on other platforms.
Elliot believes the mystery behind Silksong’s marketing–such as only one update on its development progress per year–boosted the game’s launch. However, the Alinea analyst added that maybe only a handful of titles can get away with this strategy. One specific indie game that might be able to follow Silksong’s footsteps is Haunted Chocolatier from Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone.
Silksong peaked with just a tad over 587,000 concurrent players on Steam over the weekend. Team Cherry has announced a patch that will make the game easier, though there’s also a “cheat code” to make it harder, too. Either way, be sure to check out GameSpot’s Silksong guides hub.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.