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  1. Games
  2. Survival Games

After 8 years, Subnautica beats its all-time Steam player peak with over 50,000 fans dipping their toes back into Unknown Worlds' OG survival game

News
By Anna Koselke published 26 May 2026

Step aside, Subnautica 2

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Now that Subnautica 2 has made waves among survival game fans, some are evidently going back to Unknown Worlds' first entry to explore its dangerous depths – so much so, in fact, it's broken its all-time player peak record on Steam.

It's been a solid eight years since Subnautica last hit the player peak it would hold for nearly a decade, but it's finally broken that figure now – likely thanks to its sequel's timely release and accompanying discounted bundle.

The new all-time player peak, which popped up just two days ago, as per SteamDB, sits at a neat 51,446 active users. The current number of players isn't all that far off, either… a nice 44,174 as I'm seeing it at the moment, to be precise.

Subnautica beat its all-time concurrent player record 8 years after release! from r/subnautica

This isn't all that surprising, seeing as Subnautica 2 has made quite the splash itself, with a whopping two million copies selling in just 12 hours following its May 14 launch.

It's in Early Access over on Steam and will be as Unknown Worlds continues to iron outs its wrinkles, add new content, and whatnot, which means it's also not as lengthy as its legendary predecessor – a fact that aligns well with the sudden influx of Subnautica players.

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That 51,446 figure isn't as impressive as Subnautica 2's own number, though – heck, after just 1 hour, the sequel was about nine times bigger than the original already, with an all-time peak of 467,582 now.

I'd wager many of the folks moving over to the first game are newcomers, while others are returning to its unforgiving waters after years of awaiting Unknown Worlds' next title… a nice mix of familiar faces and fresh fans.

Who knows what's next for these numbers, really – we might see the first Subnautica attract even more survivors over the following few days as the hype around the sequel settles, or we could see a boost in both games' players. Only time will tell.

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Anna Koselke
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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.

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