Slay the Spire 2 has enjoyed an enormous early access launch on Steam, breaking into the top 20 most-played games of all time on Valve’s platform.
Mega Crit’s sequel had already become the most-played roguelike ever on Steam after it launched last week, but now, after hitting an astonishing 574,638 peak concurrent players over the weekend, it’s joined the special top 20 club — and there are some big hitters within its sights.
Chief among them in the indie space is Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight: Silksong, which hit a peak of 587,150. And it’s that game the developers at MegaCrit cheekily pointed out as its target in a social media post celebrating their success.
“Our team is TOTALLY blown away by the amount of people who have been playing and sharing their love for the game we’ve been working on for the past half decade,” MegaCrit tweeted. “We’re excited to continue to make StS2 the best that it can be!! Also obligatory joke: we’ll getcha one day Silksong.”
Mega Crit had already playfully took aim at Bungie’s Marathon, which came out the same day as Slay the Spire 2, in a tweet they eventually admitted came off meaner than intended. But the truth is Slay the Spire 2 is the hottest video game on Steam right now, and is behind only the eternally popular PUBG, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2 in terms of current popularity.
You might be wondering what MegaCrit will do to capitalize on its success. Many developers would go hard on microtransactions, but it doesn’t sound like they’re coming to Slay the Spire 2. “We’re microtransaction haters,” Casey Yano, MegaCrit co-founder, told Destructoid, despite the fact that “a lot of our players threaten to buy all and any cosmetics we may ever release.”
I’m among the many playing at the moment, and I initially found it a tad confusing having not played the original. If you’re new to Slay the Spire, our Slay the Spire 2 Beginner’s Guide can help you get familiar with the basics, and for fans of the first game, take a look at the biggest changes in Slay the Spire 2. We’ve also got a guide to all the Slay the Spire 2 characters and how to unlock them, plus how to play co-op with friends.
Not only are a huge number of people playing Slay the Spire 2, but the vast majority are loving it. On Steam it enjoys a user review rating of ‘overwhelmingly positive,’ with nearly 14,000 user reviews already online. Check out IGN’s Slay the Spire 2 Early Access Review So Far to find out what we think.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
