Artemis II hype sees Kerbal Space Program beat all-time Steam player record 11 years after launch
The same definitely cannot be said for the sequel
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Sadly, most of us won't ever come close to being astronauts, leaving us to live vicariously through the incredible work of crews such as those involved in the Artemis II from NASA. In that spirit, plenty of people have booted up Kerbal Space Program to enjoy some astro-exploration of their own, setting a record for the spaceflight sim.
Since the Artemis II's launch on April 1, there's been a steady uptick in players of Kerbal Space Program, as can be seen on SteamCharts. In fact, the influx starts just before, on March 29, when over 5,600 people decided to start putting together their own shuttle launches in the name of exploring the stars above.
Then, as NASA's latest venture to the moon took flight, the numbers started to skyrocket, pun intended. It was 10,407 by April 4; 11,712 by April 5; and 12,306 by April 8. Then, eventually, the game made it into another frontier entirely.
Article continues belowOn April 12, 20,875 concurrent players were recorded for Kerbal Space Program, comfortably marking a new benchmark for the longstanding space-launch simulator. It helps a conveniently timed discount in the spring Steam sale brought the release right down to £2.99 in the backhalf of March, letting savvy space fans get it for cheap.
If you're wondering how this lines up with the sequel, well, there have been mothballs for Kerbal Space Program 2, I'm afraid. Just over 500 concurrent players is the most recent peak, according to SteamCharts. The follow-up, still in early access, is sitting on Mostly Negative reviews, hence players haven't all made the jump over just yet.
For Artemis II, and NASA's missions for the foreseeable future, it'll be the OG that lets us take a giant for mankind of our own. That said, I'd wager a successful launch in Kerbal Space Program isn't all that much easier than the real thing, when we get down to brass tax.
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Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.
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