Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight: Silksong launched globally on Sept 4, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. EDT, but heavy demand has left major digital storefronts—including Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo eShop—showing errors, loading problems and interrupted purchases for large numbers of players.
Key Takeaways
- Silksong released worldwide on Sept 4, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. EDT across Switch, Switch 2, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X|S and PC.
- Many users encounter store errors: Steam displays a purchase error image, eShop and PlayStation users report stalls or missing listings, and Xbox buyers are advised to use remote install options.
- Steam reports Silksong as the platform’s top seller with over 100,000 concurrent players shortly after launch.
- Hollow Knight’s original game sold over 15 million copies; expectations and demand for Silksong were high after its 2019 announcement.
- Some indie developers delayed their own releases after Team Cherry’s surprise two-week launch notice in August.
Verified Facts
Silksong, announced in 2019 as the follow-up to the acclaimed Hollow Knight, went on sale on Sept 4, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The sequel is available on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, and PC. The original Hollow Knight sold more than 15 million copies, helping create a large, active fanbase for the sequel.
Shortly after the game went live, users across multiple storefronts reported issues completing purchases or even loading the product page. On Steam many buyers saw an error graphic and could not add the game to cart or finalize purchases. Nintendo eShop users reported long loading screens or error messages, and some PlayStation users said the listing was intermittently unavailable.
Steam’s public metrics showed Silksong rapidly climbing sales charts; the title became Steam’s top-selling game and reached more than 100,000 concurrent players on that platform within hours of launch. The surge in traffic is consistent with a highly anticipated indie release from a small studio with a large global fanbase.
Context & Impact
Team Cherry is a small Australia-based studio whose 2017 debut, Hollow Knight, combined challenging combat with hand-drawn art and earned indie success. Silksong grew from an initial DLC concept into a full game that took several years to complete—reports indicate the project ultimately spanned roughly seven years of development.
The timing of Silksong’s release amplified its impact on the indie release calendar. After Team Cherry’s August announcement of a two-week window to launch, at least a half-dozen other indie teams publicly delayed releases to avoid competing for attention and storefront bandwidth.
High concurrent player numbers and sales can strain storefront and backend infrastructure. Platform operators often see spikes during major releases; when demand exceeds capacity or when unexpected edge cases appear, customers can experience timeouts, errors or temporary delisting of storefront entries.
Streamers and early buyers amplified both the demand and visibility of issues. Many live broadcasts showed attempts to purchase or launch the game interrupted by the same storefront errors reported by individual players, putting additional load on platform services during the launch window.
How Xbox remote install helped some players
Some players who could not complete purchases used Xbox’s remote-install feature via the console management website to queue Silksong downloads to their consoles. Reporting attributed this workaround to guidance shared on social media by journalists and users.
Official Statements
At publication time, platform holders and Team Cherry had not released broad, detailed statements explaining all outages; some platform support pages and social posts offered troubleshooting tips and temporary workarounds.
Platform notices / reporting
Unconfirmed
- Reports that Silksong was completely removed from the PlayStation Store for some users remain inconsistent across regions and have not been universally confirmed.
- Whether specific payment processors or regional CDNs are the root causes of the outages has not been publicly verified by platform operators.
Bottom Line
Silksong’s launch confirms the sequel’s strong demand but also highlights how concentrated digital launches can strain storefronts and frustrate buyers. Most issues during high-profile launches are temporary; affected players should watch official platform support channels for updates and consider queued or remote-install options where available.