"This seems like a very tough boss": Mewgenics eyes Steam roguelike record held by Hades 2 as the cat breeding sim surpasses its legendary dev's other indie hit, The Binding of Isaac

Mewgenics collars — (Image credit: Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel)

Mewgenics is almost the kind of roguelike that surpasses the concurrent players of the likes of Vampire Survivors, and developer Edmund McMillen's own The Binding of Isaac.

Mewgenics is the newest roguelike from Edmund McMillen, developer of what is arguably the top of the list for best roguelike games, The Binding of Isaac, and Tyler Glaiel, developer of The End is Nigh.

However, Isaac was apparently nothing more than McMillen testing out roguelikes in preparation for Mewgenics. And after 14 years, including one cancellation, the game has released to massive acclaim – becoming the first 90+ rated game of 2026 – and had already made back its development budget within the first three hours.

(although this seems like a very tough boss)February 11, 2026

However, it's not just Isaac, as Glaiel notes, "I'm being told that now that we passed Vampire Survivors' peak, the only roguelike/lite with more peak concurrent players than us is Hades 2."

He continues, saying he's "looking forward to the weekend," where the cat-breeding strategy game could potentially dethrone the Hades sequel – although it has an uphill battle, since Hades 2 peaked at 112,947 players when it launched back in September, which Glaiel acknowledges, saying "this seems like a very tough boss".

Regardless, it's impressive for a strategy game, which sits atop a relatively niche genre compared to action games like Hades and Isaac. And the impressive player peak is not the only big win for Mewgenics, either, as Glaiel confirms that the game has had "half a million units sold in 36 hours."

After 20 hours I've fallen in love with Mewgenics, the only roguelike chaotic enough to let me train necromancer cats