Slay the Spire 2 developers said they didn't expect to steamroll Marathon's player numbers. Explore their reaction to the launch, including their joke that landed harsher than intended.
Slay the Spire 2 Receives Overwhelming Launch Success
Marathon Congrats Post Wasn't a Shade
Slay the Spire 2 (StS2) greatly outperformed both its predecessor and Marathon in player numbers, even as an Early Access build. Developer Mega Crit seemingly did not foresee the scale of this success and subsequently apologized for a sarcastic congratulatory post for Marathon’s launch.
The roguelike deckbuilder’s Early Access launch coincided with the extraction shooter’s release last Thursday, and Mega Crit congratulated Marathon developer Bungie on X (formerly Twitter) with a tongue-in-cheek remark. "Don't let small indie passion projects like this pass you by just because Slay the Spire 2 is out," the post said.
However, with StS2 dethroning Marathon as the top-selling game on Steam, Mega Crit immediately clarified on the same thread that it was not meant to be a "shade" as they did not expect their game to "blow up" to that extent. The studio's co-founder, Casey Yano, also admitted that the post "seems a bit meaner than it was intended." "To be fair I didn't think we'd actually pass Marathon in concurrent users," he added.
As of writing, StS2 has surpassed half a million concurrent players at 574,638 users, compared to Marathon's peak at 88,337 and 57,025 for the first Slay the Spire, the game that defined the roguelike deckbuilder genre since its launch in 2019. The sequel has also entered the Top 20 of all-time player peaks on Steam, besting fan favorites like Call of Duty and Terraria.
Here at Game8, we recognized Slay the Spire 2 as a worthy sequel that feels both familiar and fresh, positioning itself as the new benchmark for roguelike deckbuilders. Dive into our review of its Early Access here:
Devs Joke They’ll Beat Silksong’s Player Count One Day
In response to Slay the Spire 2 achieving a half-million all-time peak—which occurred only less than a week after launching in Early Access—Mega Crit shared that they are "TOTALLY blown away by the amount of people who have been playing and sharing their love" for the sequel they have been pouring half a decade of hard work into. They expressed their excitement "to continue to make StS2 the best that it can be," and ended the status update with a lighthearted "we'll getcha one day Silksong."
Silksong is an immensely popular indie Metroidvania with a peak player count of 587,150, roughly ten thousand higher than Slay the Spire 2. Path of Exile 2 is currently the only game standing between Silksong and StS2 on Steam’s Top 20 highest player peaks. On the topic of Slay the Spire 2 developers making light-hearted references to Silksong in their social media posts, they had also noted in jest last year that the Hollow Knight sequel was not responsible for StS2’s delay, in line with multiple other games postponing their own release dates to avoid clashing with the Team Cherry title.
In another post, Mega Crit humorously suggested that a third Slay the Spire could reach "166,861,777 concurrent players by 2035," citing the "92,982%" jump from the original's 193 players to the sequel's 179,456, "the highest ever for any roguelike."
“Chicken Noodle Soup of Video Games”
Yano's statement during an interview with PC Gamer in December 2025 provides further insight into how a launch this massive for Slay the Spire 2 was nowhere on their bingo card, especially given that it is still in Early Access. "I feel like Slay the Spire is the chicken noodle soup of video games," he said, "It's not exciting, but I hope people like our soup."
Slay the Spire 2 currently dominates Steam as the top-selling title and third most-played game, backed by "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews applauding its seamless carryover of the quality fans loved in the original.
Slay the Spire 2 is now available in Early Access on PC via Steam. To stay updated about the game, check out our article below!
Sources:
X/Twitter | Slay the Spire 2 congratulates Marathon
X/Twitter | Casey Yano apologizes for the post
X/Twitter | Mega Crit is blown away
X/Twitter | StS3 is on track to hit 166,861,777
Steam Charts
SteamDB | Highest player peaks
SteamDB | Slay the Spire 2
SteamDB | Slay the Spire
SteamDB | Marathon
PC Gamer | 'Everything is bigger' in Slay the Spire 2, which has been crowned our Most Wanted game
