No Man’s Sky's latest free Voyagers update has taken off in more ways than one, bringing in the highest number of players since it launched back in 2016.
Hello Games' Sean Murray commented on the achievement on X/Twitter, posting a screenshot commemorating the number of players who were in-game at the time — 97,986 — adding: "Highest number of players since launch," and appending a "mind blown" emoji.
Interestingly, the peak has risen even further since then, with Steam reporting a 24-hour peak of 98,285 concurrent players.
No Man’s Sky is a game about exploration and survival, set in an infinite universe. Voyagers adds a long list of features, which Murray said Hello Games had worked on for some time. Chief among them is the Corvette Ship Class and the possibility for a multiplayer crew, as well as sky diving, varied cockpits, a new expedition, mission radar, and more.
A new experimental build has also just been pushed to PC with further incoming fixes and improvements.
No Man's Sky is not the only game seeing a surge of new and returning players this week, either. While the player count for Hollow Knight looks to have been pretty stable over the last six months or so, the announcement of Hollow Knight: Silksong's release date — September 4! — has either piqued player interest or nostalgia enough to double its usual player count essentially overnight, breaking the last concurrent record set back in March 2022… which is quite something given the game released way back in 2017.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
