[UPDATE - May 15, 2026] The Subnautica 2 developer has now announced that the game surpassed two million units in the first twelve hours of the early access launch.
[ORIGINAL STORY] Subnautica 2 has been out for just about an hour and a half at the time of this writing, and as you might've expected from the game that had over 5 million wishlists, its launch has been an incredible success for developer Unknown Worlds as it has already reached over 1 million copies sold and is nearing half a million concurrent players on Steam.
Unknown Worlds confirmed the sales milestone about an hour after the game officially went live in Early Access, and its concurrent player count of over 450K players on Steam alone was practically its starting baseline, with hundreds of thousands of players diving into the alien ocean as soon as they could. Its current peak is 467,582 players.
Once again, it's not a surprising result, but it's a testament to the pedigree and reputation the Unknown Worlds team has built up over the years since the first Subnautica release. A reputation that was clearly unscathed by the legal battle between Krafton and the Unknown Worlds co-founders that wrapped up earlier this year.
Speaking of that legal battle, it feels pretty safe to say that Krafton will have to pay Unknown Worlds the $250 million bonus that began the entire spat, which Krafton tried to avoid paying by firing the Unknown Worlds co-founders.
Wccftech will be covering Subnautica 2 throughout its early access journey and into 1.0 (which could take between two to three years, according to Unknown Worlds), but for more on the new survival game now, you can check out our preview where our own Alessio Palumbo got the chance to hear directly from Unknown Worlds lead designer Anthony Galagos and producer Scott McDonald all about what's new in Subnautica 2 and what the studio's vision is for its future.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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