Hollow Knight: Silksong has amassed a total of over 5 million players across platforms, with over 3 million sales on Steam alone, per a new report. First announced in 2019 and originally targeted for a 2023 launch, Hollow Knight: Silksong was finally released on September 4, 2025, on PC and consoles.
Thanks to the immense success of 2017's Hollow Knight, combined with the prolonged wait for a sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong's launch was nothing short of phenomenal, especially for an indie game. The Team Cherry-developed title attracted swarms of players within hours of its arrival and breached the 500K concurrent players mark on Steam. Besides experiencing instant popularity among gamers, it was also widely praised by reviewers and currently holds an average score of 94 on OpenCritic, which is the highest on the review aggregator in 2025.
Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Level Design Forges a New Path, and That’s for the Best
Hollow Knight: Silksong makes one big change to its predecessor's level design, and it was absolutely the right move for the long-awaited sequel.
Hollow Knight: Silksong Races Past 5 Million Players
According to The Alinea Insight Newsletter, Hollow Knight: Silksong grew beyond 5 million players after its release, with over a million of those coming from Xbox Game Pass on console. In its first three days, the metroidvania title sold more than 3 million copies on Steam and accumulated more than $50 million through those sales. It was revealed that most of the game's Steam sales were from the US and China, while Russia, Japan, and Brazil comprised its other major markets. The source noted that these numbers were in line with the ambitiously high expectations surrounding the indie title, which had been wishlisted by around 5 million Steam users. Interestingly, 78% of Hollow Knight: Silksong players on Steam and 81% of those on PlayStation also owned the first game.
While most big hits become renowned for having a record-breaking launch, Hollow Knight: Silksong went a step further and drew attention for having a "storefront-breaking" launch, owing to a huge influx of interested buyers that overwhelmed Steam, Nintendo eShop, and Microsoft Store. The aforementioned stats and figures show that the initial momentum received by the Hollow Knight sequel has translated well commercially and in terms of the game's player-base. The notable overlap between owners of Silksong and owners of the 2017 original also suggests that a significant number of the former game's players may be longtime fans who naturally moved on to the next entry in the series.
After rolling out what was arguably one of the most anticipated games in recent memory, Team Cherry devs are now preparing to ship Hollow Knight: Silksong's inaugural patch. Apart from bug fixes, the upcoming update is set to address the fan feedback about the high difficulty present in the early stages of the side-scroller. It will be interesting to see if these "slight" balancing changes will be enough to effectively improve the player experience in that regard.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 91 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- September 4, 2025
- ESRB
- Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Developer(s)
- Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
- Team Cherry
WHERE TO PLAY
Become the Princess Knight
As the lethal hunter Hornet, adventure through a kingdom ruled by silk and song! Captured and taken to this unfamiliar world, prepare to battle mighty foes and solve ancient mysteries as you ascend on a deadly pilgrimage to the kingdom’s peak.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is the epic sequel to Hollow Knight, the award winning action-adventure. Journey to all-new lands, discover new powers, battle vast hordes of bugs and beasts and uncover secrets tied to your nature and your past.
- Engine
- Unity
- Franchise
- Hollow Knight
- Number of Players
- Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- PC Release Date
- September 4, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- September 4, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- September 4, 2025
- Nintendo Switch Release Date
- September 4, 2025
- Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date
- September 4, 2025
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- Wiki
