Subnautica 2 Early Access Launch Met With More Than 400k Players

Subnautica 2 Hits More Than 400,000 Players On Steam In Less Than An Hour Updated May 15, 2026, 5:20 AM EDT George is the Lead News Editor for TheGamer, and has been working in the industry since 2021 after graduating from the University of South Wales with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. He has also previously written for RPG Site, WhatCulture, and PlayStation Lifestyle. George is an expert on platformers, action games, and fighters, but tends to play as many releases as possible. This hands-on experience lets him dive into gaming communities and follow the latest trends. Some of the games George has extensively covered first-hand include Dead Rising, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, Assassin's Creed Shadows, and Ninja Gaiden 4. Sign in to your TheGamer account Subnautica 2's early access launch is off to an incredible start, as it managed to reach more than 200,000 concurrent players in less than an hour on Steam alone. To say that it's been a bit of a rough journey to get to Subnautica 2's early access launch would be an understatement. Last year, the original creators of the game were suddenly ousted from Unknown Worlds, leading to a whole bunch of legal drama between them and Krafton that sucked all of the air out of the room in discussions about the game. That drama hasn't slowed down much over the past few months, which made it very surprising when an early access release date for Subnautica 2 was recently revealed out of nowhere. Despite everything, it seems like Subnautica 2 is a surefire hit already, as it's reached some staggering player numbers after being out for less than an hour. Subnautica 2 Hasn't Been Out For An Hour But It's Already Got More Than 400k Players On Steam That Number Is Steadily Rising Too As of the time of writing, Subnautica 2 launched in early access just over half an hour ago, and it's already pulled in a frankly mind-blowing amount of players. As confirmed by SteamDB, Subnautica 2 has hit an all-time concurrent player peak of 413,097 players on Steam, a which is nearly double what it was when I started writing about its playercount. Your browser does not support the video tag. That's a very impressive number as it is, but it's even more notable considering Subnautica 2 hasn't even been out for an hour yet. Steam is also just one of the platforms that the early access launch is available on and, while we won't know what Xbox's numbers look like, it's likely to push the total count well over half a million. All of this is to say that Subnautica 2 doesn't seem to have been impacted in the slightest by all of the issues surrounding the game over the past year or so. It looks like recent developments, which include Krafton seemingly no longer acting as publisher, have assuaged fans who were worried about the game's direction some time ago. Subnautica 2 Sold 2 Million Copies In 12 Hours Since this news post went live yesterday, Subnautica 2 has certainly managed to keep its momentum. While it didn't manage to get over the 500,000 concurrent Steam players mark just yet, Unknown Worlds has announced that the game sold two million copies in 12 hours, which is incredibly impressive. It's worth noting that this specifically says copies "sold", which seemingly doesn't account for everyone playing on Game Pass. Unknown Worlds also confirmed that Subnautica 2's peak concurrent player count exceeded 651,000 across all platforms, with Steam alone managing 467,000. This is around nine times the peak of the first Subnautica game when it launched in 2018, which shows just how much the series has grown since then. Subnautica 2 Systems Released May 14, 2026 ESRB Everyone 10+ / Language, Fantasy Violence Developer(s) Unknown Worlds Entertainment Publisher(s) Krafton Engine Unreal Engine 5 Next Subnautica 2 Early Access Review: Familiar Waters. New Nightmares. Subnautica 2 shows promise, but it will need to do more than build on Subnautica's foundational elements to stand out on its own.