Slay the Spire 2’s explosive early access launch makes it the most-played roguelike in Steam’s history on day one

Who's up slaying their spire? Well, a whole heck of a lot of gamers, that's who. Slay the Spire 2's early access launch yesterday can only be described as a tremendous success. The long-anticipated sequel to one of the earliest and most popular roguelikes on Steam had such high demand that it caused issues on the app's store yesterday. Image via MegaCrit But eventually, error codes subsides, and the numbers started pouring in. Less than a day later, it sits at Overwhelmingly Positive with almost 5,000 reviews, and a shocking all-time peak (reached within the past hour as of publishing) of over 430,000 concurrent players. That's enough to instantly make it the most-played Steam game with the "roguelike" tag, ever. On day one, it skyrocketed past Elden Ring Nightreign's previous record of 313,593, and utterly dwarfing the high of the original Slay the Spire's peak of 57,025. And the rest of the list is also nothing to scoff at: Hades 2, Megabonk, Vampire Survivors, Risk of Rain 2, and on and on. Slay the Spire 2 adds on to the original game's formula with new characters and cards, but also online co-op, giving every card battler fan a reason to gift their friends the game (or bug them until they buy it), marking uncharted territory for the series. These kinds of numbers are a dream for any game dev, let alone an indie team like MegaCrit, who have taken years to work on and iterate the sequel. It's a feel-good story for sure, especially when those are in short supply these days. I'm hoping to see some sales numbers soon, but either way, that many players on an indie roguelike card battler is impressive no matter how you look at it. Screenshot by Destructoid Congrats to the team at MegaCrit, because if this is just the beginning, I can't wait to see how STS2 grows and improves over time with updates leading in to an eventual 1.0 full release. The post Slay the Spire 2’s explosive early access launch makes it the most-played roguelike in Steam’s history on day one appeared first on Destructoid.

Mar 6, 2026 - 23:53

Slay the Spire 2’s explosive early access launch makes it the most-played roguelike in Steam’s history on day one

Who's up slaying their spire? Well, a whole heck of a lot of gamers, that's who.

Slay the Spire 2's early access launch yesterday can only be described as a tremendous success. The long-anticipated sequel to one of the earliest and most popular roguelikes on Steam had such high demand that it caused issues on the app's store yesterday.

Image via MegaCrit But eventually, error codes subsides, and the numbers started pouring in. Less than a day later, it sits at Overwhelmingly Positive with almost 5,000 reviews, and a shocking all-time peak (reached within the past hour as of publishing) of over 430,000 concurrent players. That's enough to instantly make it the most-played Steam game with the "roguelike" tag, ever.

On day one, it skyrocketed past Elden Ring Nightreign's previous record of 313,593, and utterly dwarfing the high of the original Slay the Spire's peak of 57,025. And the rest of the list is also nothing to scoff at: Hades 2, Megabonk, Vampire Survivors, Risk of Rain 2, and on and on.

Slay the Spire 2 adds on to the original game's formula with new characters and cards, but also online co-op, giving every card battler fan a reason to gift their friends the game (or bug them until they buy it), marking uncharted territory for the series.

These kinds of numbers are a dream for any game dev, let alone an indie team like MegaCrit, who have taken years to work on and iterate the sequel. It's a feel-good story for sure, especially when those are in short supply these days. I'm hoping to see some sales numbers soon, but either way, that many players on an indie roguelike card battler is impressive no matter how you look at it.

Screenshot by Destructoid Congrats to the team at MegaCrit, because if this is just the beginning, I can't wait to see how STS2 grows and improves over time with updates leading in to an eventual 1.0 full release.

The post Slay the Spire 2’s explosive early access launch makes it the most-played roguelike in Steam’s history on day one appeared first on Destructoid.

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