Hollow Knight’s Steam peak has surged after the Silksong release date news, climbing from about 20,000 to roughly 39,356 concurrent players. That spike matters because it shows an eight-year-old single-player game can still draw massive attention and translate into sales before its sequel arrives on multiple platforms on September 4.
Players are clearly getting itchy for Hollow Knight: Silksong, and a lot of them went back to the original to brush up. On Friday, the game hit a new personal record, and by Sunday, that high point nearly doubled to 39,356 concurrent players, according to SteamDB.
Yeah, it’s wild. Hollow Knight launched in 2017 – eight years ago – and it’s a solo experience, not a live service. Yet the sequel’s looming release is pulling players back in numbers you don’t usually expect for older single-player indies.
The online chatter has been… intense. Every big game event or Nintendo Direct chat gets spammed with “Skong?” and the subreddit has been full of hopium for a long time. It wasn’t just noise. Team Cherry said Hollow Knight has sold 12 million copies since the sequel’s announcement – 15 million overall – which makes the player spike feel more like real momentum than a short-lived meme.
Indie devs are noticing, too. Some studios have delayed releases to avoid going head-to-head with Silksong, and that story was covered here: ‘Hide from Silksong’ delays hit indie roguelike and Metroidvania.
Will Hollow Knight climb even higher before September 4? Maybe that’s the idea. But for now, it’s wild to see an older single-player game pull this many people back in. Wow.
