Steam and the Switch eShop are down, or at least struggling, the very second Hollow Knight: Silksong has launched, and you couldn't write better chaos
Steam and potentially other digital stores seem to be taking a beating

We may have Silkposted a bit too hard, folks. Steam servers seem to have gone down, or at least gone to hell, the very second that Hollow Knight: Silksong was finally released, and it looks like the Switch eShop followed them into the abyss.
Internet hounds like Steam Status and Down Detector indicate problems with the Steam Store at the time of writing. It's running slow for many users, and anecdotally, I can't get the browser version to open at all here in the Eastern US.
The Steam client is also running extremely slowly, assuming it's running at all. "Something Went Wrong" error pages are common.
"We were unable to service your request. Please try again later," Valve implores as error E502 L3 delays my Silksong purchase a little longer.
I've also seen reports of the Switch eShop struggling to load anything, including ol' Silksong, and several of our own writers have run into the same difficulties.
Clearly, somebody is getting through, because Silksong already has thousands of players on Steam. But it sure does look like the stampede has gummed up the works.
The Hollow Knight: Silksong Twitch category is also one of the biggest on the whole platform, with over 328,000 viewers at the time of writing, and plenty of streamers already in-game.
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Server and store stability will surely improve quickly, perhaps by the time you're reading this, but the sheer tsunami of Hollow Knight hopefuls really has been something to see.
Follow our Hollow Knight: Silksong release live coverage for all the emerging details and spoiler-free news surrounding probably the most-anticipated Metroidvania of all time.

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.