After their chill fishing game peaks at more than 20,000 concurrents, dev reveals they thought "maybe like 100 people would play it ever"

a white and orange dog and a black cat sit on a bench and fish

(Image credit: lamedeveloper)

Webfishing is the latest game to take the indie scene by storm, and its creator had their expectations blown away completely.

It's a cozy fishing game with Animal Crossing vibes. You play as a cute critter and wander around a soothing forest of a calm beach and cast your rod into the waters hoping to catch some fish. Developer West tweeted that they "figured MAYBE like 100 people would play it ever- but here we are!" A month after release, the peak concurrent player count is almost 25,000.

West expressed "a heartfelt thanks for all of the support and attention y'all gave this silly project" and promised they have "loads of ideas for content and systems I'd love to rework/make feel better."

Replies include, "Thank you for my GOTY," "the goat," and "Thank you for making my new favorite game," so it's safe to say fans are happy with Webfishing.

its been a MONTH (?!?!) since webfishing launched and i just really wanted to say a heartfelt thanks for all of the support and attention yall gave this silly project. I can truely say I figured MAYBE like 100 people would play it ever- but here we are!November 11, 2024

Despite presenting itself as a cutesy, social, fishing sim, sweaty players have already discovered incredible movement tech in Webfishing. There are clips of players using their adorable cat or dog avatars to jump on springy mushrooms, soar high into the sky, and then land on rocks out in the ocean or in the middle of lakes and rivers.

I've not played Webfishing yet, so I don't know what benefits, if any, these fishing spots offer, but you have to admit it does look pretty cool when people can pull stunts like that off, especially in a game that doesn't seem designed around them.

If you want to try out some other non-triple A titles and you've had your fill of Webfishing for now, check out our list of upcoming indie games for this year and next.

I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.