After a lengthy development, Subnautica 2 has sold around 5 million copies on Steam in just half-a-month.
Since its launch on May 14th across Steam and the Epic Games Store, Subnautica 2 sales have skyrocketed despite its early access release. After being the most wish-listed game on Steam prior to launch, the aquatic survival game has been a huge success for developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment.
According to very renowned analytics firm Alinea Analytics, who previously reported on sales data for 007 First Light, the survival game is currently the best-selling game on Steam for the month of May, beating Forza Horizon 6.
While Forza has eclipsed the survival game in revenue, Subantica 2 has sold over double the number of copies. According to the data, the survival game has sold 5 million copies since May 14th whereas Forza has sold 2.5 million copies since its early access date of May 15th. At the time of writing, Unknown Worlds’ game is estimated to have made $122 Million in gross revenue.
Even more impressively, Subnautica 2 is vastly outpacing the speed of sales compared to its predecessor. The original game released in January 2018, but took two years to sell the same give million units, with that particular milestone crossed in January 2020.
Back in February, original series publisher Krafton, who is no longer publishing the series following a lawsuit, confirmed that the series had sold over 18.5 million copies across PC and console. This figure included sales of the original game as well as its standalone expansion Below Zero. Now, that figure is over 23.5 million, not accounting for unconfirmed additional sales of the first two games.
Of course, Subnautica 2 has not been without controversy. Prior to release, gamers pushed for a boycott of the survival game following former publisher Krafton’s ousting of original creators Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire. Additionally, there were rumours of heavy AI use which the studio has since debunked.
At the time of writing, Krafton is no longer publishing the game, and the original creators are back working on the title. Additionally, after a comical lawsuit, Krafton will have to pay Unknown Worlds a bonus of $250 million which will fund further development of the survival game.
Right now, Subnautica 2 is available on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, and it’s also playable via Nvidia GeForce Now. The game is planned to come to console some time in the future, although PlayStation and Nintendo Switch 2 fans will have to wait until after the game’s early access period is finished in a number of years.
