Hollow Knight: Silksong Release Overwhelms Major Game Stores
The launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong caused chaos on Thursday as the world’s biggest online video game stores crashed under overwhelming demand.
Thousands of players reported being unable to purchase the long-awaited sequel on Steam, with error messages persisting for more than two hours after its 3:00 p.m. BST release.
Frustrated gamers also flooded social media to share their struggles buying Silksong on Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Store, and Xbox Store, as all platforms buckled under the surge of traffic.
#1Fans Slam Game Stores After Hollow Knight: Silksong Launch Outage
Hollow Knight fans, who have been eagerly awaiting the sequel since the first game’s 2017 release — which sold over 15 million copies worldwide — were left frustrated on launch day.
Reports on Downdetector spiked to more than 3,700 outage complaints within an hour of Silksong’s release, highlighting widespread issues across multiple platforms.
Angry players criticized the lack of a pre-order option, calling the launch “ridiculous” and “stupid,” while many argued that allowing pre-purchases could have prevented the store crashes.
Further frustration spread as gamers posted error code screenshots on X (formerly Twitter) and other social platforms, showcasing the problems on Steam, PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, and Nintendo eShop as they attempted to buy the game.
#2Hollow Knight
Silksong Demand Crashes Stores, Sparks Jokes About “Breaking the Internet”
Humble Bundle briefly pulled Hollow Knight: Silksong from its storefront on Thursday, displaying a note that the game was unavailable due to overwhelming demand — though the issue was quickly resolved.
The chaos even prompted Christopher Larkin, the composer behind both Hollow Knight and Silksong, to joke on X (formerly Twitter) that the game may have “crashed the internet.”
Meanwhile, another X user, @haydenschiff, shared images of frustrated gamers running into Steam error codes while attempting to stream the game on Twitch.
Despite widespread reports of outages, demand was so intense that Steam recorded more than 100,000 concurrent players within just 30 minutes of launch — with many fans purchasing their copies through alternative storefronts.
On forums, one angry gamer asked, “How you guys play when I can’t even buy?” while another joked that they had “beaten the hardest boss” after successfully completing their purchase.
Even publishers appeared to be caught up in the mayhem, showing just how disruptive the launch had become.
#3The Indie Team Behind the Hit
Hollow Knight: Silksong was developed by Team Cherry, a three-person indie studio based in Adelaide, Australia. Like its predecessor, the game is a side-scrolling action-adventure set in a dark fantasy world of insect warriors. This time, the spotlight shifts to Hornet, a sword-wielding princess who first appeared as a supporting character in the original game.
Co-developer William Pellen told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the series’ enduring appeal lies in its timeless design:
“The fact that people keep discovering Hollow Knight, the original, and this was our hope with it, suggests that it hasn’t fallen out of date. It was inspired by older games, so in a way it’s sort of outside of time. Hopefully Silksong can achieve that too.”
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