Hollow Knight: Silksong has managed the kind of launch most indie developers can only dream about.
Just weeks after launch, Team Cherry’s sequel topped charts and overtook the lifetime sales of Metroid Dread, Nintendo’s biggest Metroid hit.
How Many Copies Did Silksong Sell Across Platforms?
Analyst estimates place Silksong at around 3.2 million copies sold on Steam shortly after launch.
The total climbed over 4.2 million after 500,000 sales each on PlayStation and Switch.
That figure doesn’t even count Xbox purchases directly, since much of its audience there came through Game Pass, where the game racked up approximately 1.5 million downloads.
Even without counting them as sales, Game Pass additions drive Silksong’s player numbers close to six million in a short time.
Why Did So Many Players Rush to Buy Silksong?
With a decade-long buildup and 15 million copies already sold, Hollow Knight’s sequel launch was always going to hit big.
Before release, Silksong ranked as Steam’s most wishlisted title, and a large slice of those 4.8 million wishlists became purchases on day one.
Storefronts couldn’t handle the rush at launch, and Steam was momentarily overloaded.
Silksong’s sales far exceeded Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, which reached only 46,000 Steam copies, or 2% of Silksong’s total.
The sequel shot up the charts with more than 587,000 players logged in at once, placing it 17th in Steam’s all-time peak rankings.
This put Silksong in a league far beyond most indie releases, with metrics that rival those of major AAA launches.
Did Silksong Really Outsell Metroid’s Best Game?
For context, Nintendo’s most successful Metroid game to date, Metroid Dread, sits at around 3.07 million lifetime sales.
With Silksong already surpassing that number just weeks after release, Team Cherry’s two-game franchise has effectively caught up to the entire Metroid series, which has sold around 22.6 million copies across all entries.
The contrast is clear as a three-person indie team now rivals one of Nintendo’s longest-running franchises.
At just $20, Silksong was a no-brainer for millions, and riding on the legacy of Hollow Knight gave it the kind of momentum no ad campaign could match.
The sequel pulled mainly from familiar faces, with almost 80% of buyers coming from the first game.
At the same time, the lower barrier to entry and broad platform availability attracted numerous new players.
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