Highly anticipated indie sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong released this week, and it’s already a gigantic smash hit.
The little metroidvania rocketed to the top of the Steam Most Played charts, with over 500,000 concurrent players (and climbing), and an Overwhelmingly Positive user rating.
We haven’t see this level of feverish popularity from an indie title since Palworld!
Silksong is also unprecedented for its unusually candid release. There were no previews, no build-up, no review codes sent out to press. It didn’t even have a release date until just a few weeks before launch! The release date trailer has since garnered over five million views.
Needless to say, after the developers officially announced the sequel back in 2019(!), fan-demand had practically become a meme by 2025.
The original Hollow Knight released back in 2017 from Australian developer Team Cherry. The 2D metroidvania stars an insectoid hero who battles across their miniature world, improving their skills and defeating monstrous foes.
Despite being a relatively crowded genre for indie developers, Hollow Knight is oft cited as one of the best modern action-platformers ever made, with exemplary music, art design, gameplay, and world design. Since launch, the developers have released four DLC packs with more quests, boss monsters, and other content — and all of it completely free.
Silksong takes place after the events of the first game, and stars one of its memorable characters, Hornet, who must escape a new kingdom.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is available now on PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It’s rated E10+.
