The launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong appears to have proven too much for the majority of digital storefronts, as the Xbox Store, Steam, and Nintendo eShop all suffered major outages on September 4, right at the time of the highly anticipated sequel's release. While some fans are now jumping into Hollow Knight: Silksong on their respective platforms, many suffered a big setback when attempting to download the title, as the majority of gaming's biggest storefronts went offline.
With Grand Theft Auto 6 delayed until next year, Hollow Knight: Silksong was destined to be one of the biggest releases of 2025. The indie game's launch has been so anticipated that nearly a dozen different games have delayed their release dates because of Hollow Knight: Silksong. Many of these titles come from small indie developers who knew they would have no chance competing with the biggest indie game of them all, but it also pushed back Baby Steps, another highly anticipated indie title that will be published by Devolver Digital. The hilarious-looking game was initially going to release for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam on September 8, but will now be available on September 23 to avoid competing with Silksong.
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Hollow Knight: Silksong Causes Major Storefront Outages
The announcement of Hollow Knight: Silksong's release date was only made two weeks ago, but as fans have been waiting eight years to get their hands on the sequel, hype for the game was already at an all-time high. So much so that its release has managed to take out the Xbox Store, Steam, and Nintendo eShop, according to Insider Gaming. After years of waiting, Silksong was released digitally at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET / 3 PM BST today, September 4. As there won't be a physical release until 2026, the only way to currently play Silksong is by downloading it digitally, which likely explains why the majority of major storefronts suffered such a big outage upon its release.
Thankfully, it looks like these storefronts are once again operational, but it wouldn't be surprising to see further issues as the day progresses. In less than an hour, Silksong has already peaked at more than 103,000 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. To put that into perspective, the first Hollow Knight broke its own concurrent playercount record multiple times in the build-up to Silksong's release. On September 3, just one day before the sequel's launch, Hollow Knight hit nearly 73,000 concurrent players on the platform.
Fans who are yet to pull the trigger one one of this year's biggest releases will be pleased to know that the title isn't just $19.99 USD (an absolute bargain given the ever increasing price of video games), it's also now available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. For those who are already subscribed to the highest tier of Microsoft's service, Hollow Knight: Silksong is available to download and play right now at no additional cost.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 91 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- September 4, 2025
- ESRB
- Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Developer(s)
- Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
- Team Cherry
