- Steam and other stores suffer outages due to the release of Silksong
- Recovery phased over about 3 hours; PlayStation, the latest
- From over 100.000 to over 450.000 concurrent players on Steam
- Price close to €20, day one on Game Pass and 4,8M wishlists drive demand
The long-awaited estreno de Hollow Knight: Silksong unleashed an avalanche of players that crashed Steam and several digital sales platforms, preventing the game from being purchased or downloaded for quite some time.
The pent-up demand after years of waiting caused Access errors, downed pages and crashes in major stores, a rare scenario even for major blockbuster releases.
Widespread outage: what happened on Steam and consoles
The game was activated around 16:00 p.m. (peninsular time) and, at that precise moment, the largest PC store collapsed: For many users, Steam became completely inaccessible.
On Nintendo, the eShop threw up constant error messages; the PlayStation Store temporarily removed Silksong's listing to ease the load; and on Xbox, crashes and failures were reported during the initial download.
Services that aggregate incidents, such as DownDetector, recorded peak reports coinciding with departure time, confirming an unusual impact in terms of volume and simultaneity.
The impact was global, although with differences by region: There were countries with total interruption and others with simple intermittent errors when processing the purchase or starting the download.
Timeline of recovery and activity figures
Normality gradually returned: Steam, Microsoft Store, and the eShop recovered most features in the first three hours., with occasional falls in some areas.
PlayStation was the last to restore the search and the game sheet, somewhat later than the rest of the platforms.
As soon as services allowed purchases and downloads, Steam already reflected más de 100.000 jugadores simultáneos within a few minutes of unlocking.
As the afternoon progressed, the count on Valve's platform surpassed 450.000 players at once, placing Silksong among the three most played titles of the moment and with very positive ratings (close to 98% in the first few hours).
The excitement was also felt on Twitch, where más de 300.000 espectadores They followed the launch while some players waited for the servers to stabilize.
Why the avalanche occurred
One of the clearest factors was the precio muy competitivo: around €20 (€19,50 in Spain, see the price and where to buy), significantly lower than the most expensive releases on the market.
Added to this was his availability from day one on Xbox Game Pass, which expanded reach and visibility among very diverse audiences.
Previously, Silksong topped Steam's wishlist with más de 4,8 millones de usuarios, ahead of franchises with much larger budgets.
And, of course, the long journey to its launch weighed heavily: siete años de espera Since the original announcement and the prestige of the first Hollow Knight, which surpassed 15 million downloads.
Impacto en la industria y reacción de la comunidad
The prominence of the launch pushed several independent studios to postpone dates so as not to be overshadowed during peak attention.
Strikingly, the GOG.com store did not register any notable setbacks: For some players it became an alternative route while other services were normalized.
On the networks, testimonies of errors and queues multiplied and Some users turned to key shops, an option that may entail different conditions and risks than official stores.
Where and how you can play now
With services stabilized, Silksong is available on PC (Steam and Microsoft Store), Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Series/One.
In the Microsoft ecosystem, it can also be downloaded a través de Xbox Game Pass; in stores, the price is around €20, with slight variations by region.
What happened shows the scope of a phenomenon that, being an independent project, has been capable of knocking down top-level services due to a peak in demand rarely seen in the sector.
I am a technology enthusiast who has turned his "geek" interests into a profession. I have spent more than 10 years of my life using cutting-edge technology and tinkering with all kinds of programs out of pure curiosity. Now I have specialized in computer technology and video games. This is because for more than 5 years I have been writing for various websites on technology and video games, creating articles that seek to give you the information you need in a language that is understandable to everyone.
If you have any questions, my knowledge ranges from everything related to the Windows operating system as well as Android for mobile phones. And my commitment is to you, I am always willing to spend a few minutes and help you resolve any questions you may have in this internet world.