Two million copies in twelve hours. A peak of 651,000 concurrent players across all platforms. Two weeks into Early Access, Subnautica 2 is still holding at #6 on Steam’s Top Sellers chart, rocking a 93% positive rating across nearly 63,000 reviews, and maintaining 25,000 concurrent players on Steam alone.

Not a soft launch.

Unknown Worlds Entertainment’s underwater survival sequel hit the water on May 14 and immediately claimed the 29th-highest concurrent player count in Steam history, per SteamDB data cited by Video Games Chronicle. The Steam-specific peak reached 467,582 — and that doesn’t include Xbox Game Preview or Epic Games Store players.

At $29.99, the deal is straightforward: a new alien ocean, 4-player co-op, base building, and the same dread-soaked exploration that turned the original Subnautica into a survival genre benchmark. Player reviews are overwhelmingly positive. The top negative review on the store page? “too easy” — from someone who logged 17.6 hours before filing it.

The whole thing nearly sank before it launched. Publisher Krafton fired Unknown Worlds’ leadership team last year — CEO Ted Gill, creative director Charlie Cleveland, and technical director Max McGuire — in what the developers allege was a deliberate attempt to delay the game and prevent sales from triggering a $250 million bonus clause. The trio was reinstated, the game shipped on schedule, and two million copies moved on day one.

The waters aren’t entirely calm. Unknown Worlds published a community letter acknowledging that creature balance needs work, mitigation tools feel unreliable, and some developer comments made players feel dismissed. Patches for creature aggression, flare effectiveness, and vehicle interactions are in the pipeline.

The original Subnautica’s Early Access was notoriously rough. This time the launch is strong — but the devs are still patching holes.

Sources