— The long-awaited sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong caused major outages across digital storefronts worldwide on launch day, as Steam, Nintendo’s eShop, the PlayStation Store and other retailers experienced purchase errors and brief downtime while thousands of players attempted to buy the game.
Key Takeaways
- Silksong’s release on 5 Sept 2025 produced widespread storefront disruptions across multiple platforms.
- Downdetector reports a spike of about 3,750 user outage reports shortly after launch.
- Some storefronts showed error messages for roughly three hours; Humble Bundle briefly marked the title unavailable due to traffic.
- Steam registered over 100,000 active players within 30 minutes of the game going live.
- Team Cherry — Ari Gibson, William Pellen and Jack Vine, with composer Christopher Larkin — developed Silksong in Adelaide.
- The original Hollow Knight (2017) has sold more than 15 million copies; anticipation for the sequel led at least seven other games to delay their launches.
Verified Facts
On 5 September 2025 the digital release of Hollow Knight: Silksong overwhelmed multiple online stores. Users reported being unable to complete purchases, and error messages were widely shared on social media during the initial hours after release. Troubleshooting tracker Downdetector recorded a concentrated surge of about 3,750 incident reports shortly after the title launched.
Retailers affected included Valve’s Steam platform, Nintendo’s eShop, the PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store; some third-party sellers such as Humble Bundle temporarily displayed traffic-related availability messages. Platform outages and purchase failures persisted for a number of hours before most services recovered.
Despite these problems, Steam’s concurrent-player metrics indicated more than 100,000 players were active within 30 minutes of launch, suggesting a large portion of buyers completed transactions or accessed the game successfully.
Silksong was developed by Adelaide-based indie studio Team Cherry — Ari Gibson, William Pellen and Jack Vine — with music by Christopher Larkin. The original Hollow Knight, released in 2017, has sold over 15 million copies and helped build a dedicated global fanbase eager for the sequel.
Context & Impact
Silksong’s arrival was highly anticipated after a multi-year development period that the developers have described as intentionally paced. The seven-year development window was chosen by the small team to meet their creative goals rather than under external pressure, according to recent interviews.
The release also reshaped the immediate release calendar for some smaller studios: news reports indicate at least seven other games postponed launches in the fortnight before Silksong’s release to avoid competing for attention, including titles named Baby Steps and Demonschool.
For digital storefronts and independent developers, the incident highlights the recurring challenge of handling sudden spikes in traffic when an unexpected global hit goes live. Retailers typically use pre-orders, staged launches or queue systems to mitigate load; players noted the absence of a universal pre-order option for Silksong as a contributing frustration during the sell-through.
Official Statements
Team Cherry acknowledged the launch and the community response, thanking players for their support as platforms worked through initial traffic. The South Australian Film Corporation publicly congratulated the studio on social media for its global success.
Team Cherry / South Australian Film Corporation
Unconfirmed
- Whether all reported purchase failures led to lost sales or were resolved through refunds or later purchases remains unclear.
- Details about exact technical causes on each storefront (routing, payment gateway, server capacity) have not been publicly disclosed by all platforms.
Bottom Line
Silksong’s launch underlined both the commercial strength of a well-loved indie franchise and the fragility of storefront infrastructures when faced with sudden global demand. Platforms appear to have restored service within hours, and early player counts show the release reached a large audience despite the outages. Developers, retailers and players will likely revisit launch strategies to reduce similar friction in future high-demand releases.