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Developer Lo-Fi games had a simple pitch for Kenshi back in 2018, the year of its official 1.0 launch: "A free-roaming squad based RPG focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story." Overwhelming freedom in a sprawling world was the game's north star, to the point that its Steam description also promises "freeform gameplay in a seamless game world in the largest single-player RPG world since Daggerfall, stretching over 870 square kilometers."
The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall was released in 1996, but even today, its irresponsibly large game world would dwarf nearly anything that isn't a galactic adventure like No Man's Sky. The kicker, of course, is that it wasn't really meant to be explored in the way you'd roam around Skyrim or The Witcher 3. Even so, Kenshi was really throwing down the gauntlet here, one-upping the scale of basically every RPG from the previous 20 years and promising to make its world worth wandering, too.
Six years later, sterling execution on this bold premise has earned Kenshi 95,158 Steam user reviews averaging 95% "Overwhelmingly Positive," and has brought 3 million players to its wasteland.
In a May Steam update, the first update of any kind since November 2025, Lo-Fi Crew confirms that Kenshi had sold 3 million copies. For reference, it hit 2 million in April 2024, suggesting a healthy, long tail for the game.
"To the people who picked Kenshi up on a whim," the devs wrote. "To the modders, fan artists, storytellers, Beep enthusiasts, and content creators. To everyone who's ever pointed a friend toward Kenshi, posted a screenshot, or clocked more hours than they’d care to admit. Thank you. We wouldn't be here without you."
Some merch and Steam point shop items marked the occasion, but eyes were really on Kenshi 2, an in-progress sequel that's been hidden in the mist for ages. "'Kenshi 2 when' is by far the most common question that we encounter," Lo-Fi says. So, the team made a whole website called Kenshi 2 When, complete with a signup form to be notified of any Kenshi 2 and/or general Lo-Fi news.
The sequel seems to be deep in production. "We know silence is hard to sit with. But Kenshi 2 is being built the same way we've always done things: stubbornly, carefully, and, most importantly, on our own terms," the devs say. "We appreciate your patience while we build a worthy successor to Kenshi, and an experience that will exceed your expectations."
A healthy 3 million copies of a $30 self-published game – ignoring any fees and discounts in the mix – ought to give the devs a nice big cushion for production. Which is a lot more than you can say for Kenshi 1, a game that limped its way to launch "after 12 years of working alone, working as a six-man team, shrinking back to a four-man team, and suffering the dreaded year-long pathfinding update disaster of '15," per a 2018 Steam post from lead dev Chris Hunt. Feed the starving artist in your mind: it's always better when creators are able to take their time without stressing about run rate, or indeed food.
