Nine Years Later, No Man's Sky is More Popular Than It's Been Since Its Disastrous Launch
It turns out that nine years of non-stop, free updates is a pretty good way to win back your audience. Who knew?
Remember when No Man's Sky was the biggest joke in gaming? A poster child for overpromising and a cautionary tale about launch-day disasters? Well, the joke is now on everyone who wrote it off. Fresh off its ninth anniversary, the game is seeing a massive resurgence in popularity, hitting its highest concurrent player count on Steam since its infamous 2016 debut.
Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray took to X to celebrate the milestone, posting a screenshot showing a staggering 97,986 players exploring the universe simultaneously. According to the numbers on SteamDB, the peak was actually a hair higher, topping out at 98,285 concurrent explorers.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Let's put that figure in context. Is it as high as the insane, hype-fueled peak of over 212,000 players at launch? No. But that's not the point. The vast majority of games bleed players and fade into obscurity within a year. For a nine-year-old title to pull in nearly 100,000 players at once on a single platform is a monumental achievement that almost never happens. It's a testament to a redemption arc that has been slowly and methodically built over nearly a decade.
The Power of a Free Spaceship
The catalyst for this huge influx of new and returning players is, of course, the colossal "Voyagers" update that dropped last week. As I covered just a few days ago, this wasn't just some minor patch; it was a free expansion that added the one thing players have been dreaming of for years: the ability to build your own custom starship from the ground up.
The introduction of the Corvette-class ships, which players can design piece by piece, walk around inside, and fly with their friends, was a massive shot in the arm for the game, proving that Hello Games is still willing to make huge, game-changing additions for free.
A Glimpse into the Future
This resurgence isn't just good news for No Man's Sky; it's also a sneak peek at what's next. The studio has hinted that much of the new technology that powers the custom ship building and interior traversal in the Voyagers update is tech we can expect to see in their upcoming fantasy survival game, Light No Fire. It's a smart play, using their beloved, established game to test and showcase features for their next big thing.
The redemption story of No Man's Sky is officially complete. It has transformed from a cautionary tale into the industry's gold standard for post-launch support. For nine years, Hello Games has quietly and consistently worked to deliver on their original promise, and now they're reaping the rewards. It's a rare feel-good story in an industry short on them, and a powerful middle finger to every publisher who has ever abandoned a game after a rocky launch.