Unemployment hurts less when No Man's Sky keeps handing out massive free updates, and Voyagers just gave me a really cool ship to sweeten the deal

If you've been seeing more No Man's Sky chatter on your feeds than usual, there's a big reason for that: Voyagers. Hello Games' open-world survival-craft that spans the cosmos released one of its biggest updates yet last month, making No Man's Sky the talk of the town – again. While Voyagers is notably a peak moment in No Man's Sky's nine year history, I can't help but notice that it's simply another win in the midst of a golden age for the game.

Initially, I pinpointed this golden age as starting with the Aquarius update back in September 2024. The promise of fishing and underwater bases was too good to pass up, and after a failed attempt with No Man's Sky in 2018, I finally redownloaded the title. It felt like I was one of many players finally deciding No Man's Sky had earned its keep, after a long journey climbing up from a definitively poor release, and it was time to see what all the hype was about.

Victory is ours

As with each new major update, Aquarius came with its own new Expedition, a community-wide event I eagerly dove into.

Expeditions force players to follow the same path, meaning that I was alongside thousands of other players. In the middle of a vast, endless universe, somehow I found myself standing amongst a handful of other players on a single planet out of quintillions, as we simply fished. An infinite universe, a community of players from around the world, some fishing rods, and suddenly an entire playerbase had gone fishin' together.

But I was late to the party. When examining Steam player stats, and the response to Sean Murray's own posts on Twitter where he announces each new update, the true start of this golden age appears to have started with the Worlds Part 1 update, back in July 2024.

A full revamp of the game, Worlds Part 1 provided what Murray called a "Universe refresh," visual updates, craftable starships, new fauna, mechs, new biomes, and more. No Man's Sky saw a 34,905 increase in players on Steam alone, achieving a concurrent player peak of 54,951. Since then, No Man's Sky has earned a peak of at least 15,000 concurrent players each month. This is not only thanks to the Worlds Part 1 update, but every single free update since.

With the golden age started, No Man's Sky saw a seemingly endless wave of updates, including cross-save capabilities, Aquarius, Worlds Part 2, Relics, and Beacon. Now, we've arrived at the star of the show.

The Voyagers update came as an anniversary update of sorts, providing players with the capability to build a starship – given the moniker "Corvette" in-game – from scratch, with parts collected from wrecks, purchased, or earned through the latest Expedition that came with the update.

I hadn't touched No Man's Sky since March – not for any reason other than there are too many games, and I ended up playing those instead. With the Voyagers update, however, I decided it was time to dive back into the cosmos. It appears I wasn't the only one, with No Man's Sky reaching its highest concurrent player peak since launch, attracting 97,986 players in August. That number has only risen, with a player peak of 110,893 being reached earlier this month.

This latest Expedition, Expedition 19, is probably my favorite one so far. Admittedly, this is the first Expedition I've actually managed to complete in its entirety – I used to be employed, okay? – and now, I miss it. Not only does Expedition 19 provide you with the ability to create your own Corvette from the get-go – rather than making you figure out on your own how to get this super cool, new feature in the game – but it places you in a huge community of other players creating their own unique ships.

I've seen Corvettes that have spurred jealousy due to their architectural genius, as well as ships that rely on practicality over looks. I can't help but think "That's sad, bro," when I know there's so much potential for that player's ship.

Ship shape

Now that I'm done with the Expedition and back in No Man's Sky's main server, the only time I get to see other players' ships are on The Anomaly – a type of multiplayer hub that I was in awe of the first time the game guided me towards it.

Unfortunately, it seems many others are still on their Expedition journey, meaning I'm back to seeing the standard ships that you've been able to make with the game since Worlds Part 1. It makes me wonder if I should've just stayed in the Expedition despite completing it, and enjoyed the next few weeks surrounded by a community of players with a common goal.

No Man's Sky is special, in that way. I don't play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and think "I'll miss this team in the next lobby" – more likely than not, I cannot wait for a different team. With No Man's Sky, I now find myself missing my fellow Travellers; I look forward to every excuse I have to dock onto The Anomaly, and see everyone else buzzing around, absorbed in some busy work the game has them wrapped up in.

This golden age for No Man's Sky is undeniably rooted in its multiplayer aspect – a feature that, ironically, was a missing promise during its launch. Now, it's the shining star. I haven't even finished the main story of the game after a year of playing, because I get sucked into each new Expedition that comes along. Every few months, No Man's Sky has something exciting and new to offer me, and I can't help but notice that other players continue to catch on as well.

While Voyagers has allowed No Man's Sky to reach the highest peak this golden era has seen over the last year, I don't think it shows any signs of stopping. The devs at Hello Games have their fingertips dipped in gold, and the players are here to simply reap the rewards.

There's no shortage of upcoming PS5 games to add to your wishlist if you're hankering for something newer, as well as plenty of games like No Man's Sky to discover too!