Subnautica 2 has done exceptionally well following its launch into Early Access, quickly coasting to 467,000 concurrent players on Steam alone.

The much-anticipated sequel to the oceanic survival series released in the later-half of yesterday, the 14th March. Quickly, a wave of players took to the game, hitting a peak of 467,582 concurrents on Steam before tapering off in the evening.

Official Subnautica social media accounts announced the game had sold over 1m copies across all platforms – which include PC as well as Xbox Series X/S. While writing this article, Unknown Worlds announced it had passed 2m sales within 12 hours of launching. The game is also available on Game Pass, though figures for how popular it is there aren’t publicly known.

For reference, the original Subnautica reached a lifetime peak of 51,156 concurrent players on Steam years ago, so there’s a substantial increase in excitement around the sequel. Its follow-up Subnautica: Below Zero had 42,115 peak concurrent players roughly five years ago.

Things are also looking good when comparing Subnautica 2 side-by-side with its peers in the survival genre. Rust, the juggernaut of the genre, hit an all-time PC peak concurrent player count of 262,284, while the recent pirate plunder hit Windrose came in at 222,134. The only recent survival release that has come close to those numbers is Dune: Awakening, which had a similarly explosive launch last year.

This, obviously, is great news for Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds. Not only because a popular release is good for any game development studio, but because publisher Krafton reportedly agreed to a hefty bonus package tied to the game’s performance – one that Unknown Worlds leadership claimed was at the heart of legal tussles some time ago.

So it’s a darn good start for Unknown Worlds and Subnautica 2 as it begins its Early Access journey. Now of course the pressure is on to see if Unknown Worlds can maintain strong momentum as it sales (or perhaps dives) into the rest of the year. If you’re keen to find out what Subnautica 2 is like, you can read Eurogamer’s Subnautica 2 preview for some insight into what’s on offer with the game’s initial release.