Subnautica 2 Achieves Record Breaking Sales Milestone and High Player Counts Amidst Major Legal Conflict Between Unknown Worlds and Krafton
Unknown Worlds reports Subnautica 2 achieved the most commercially successful start of any game in its franchise, with 1,000,000 units sold in the first hour of its Early Access release. This achievement, reached after an eager wait which accumulated over 5,000,000 wishlists on Steam, was confirmed via the studio's social media channels, where they thanked their community for immediate support of the project launched shortly after 11AM.
The scope of the launch is further illustrated by PC player statistics, as a total of 467,000 players were active at the time of writing according to SteamDB tracking, making Subnautica 2 the fourth most played game on the platform. This figure is approximately 9 times higher than that of its predecessor, which implies a drastic increase in the fanbase of the underwater survival genre.
Over 1 million Subnauts have already dived into Subnautica 2 🤯
— Subnautica (@Subnautica) May 14, 2026
We can't thank you enough for your support! pic.twitter.com/3a0OKXChvp
The successful launch represents an end to a high stakes legal conflict between Unknown Worlds and the parent company, Krafton. In 2025 Krafton tried to replace key members of Unknown Worlds leadership, such as co founder Charlie Cleveland and CEO Ted Gill. Court documents suggested that Krafton management tried to circumvent a $250,000,000 bonus by hiring a chatbot that would devise strategies to evade said payment. The revenue bonuses, earned by achieving certain revenue milestones which the sequel was likely to achieve upon release, played a crucial part in this legal battle.
In March, the court rule that control of both the studio and the project be given back to the original leadership team, and prolonged the time allotted for the studio to meet the bonus revenue figures. Since 1,000,000 units sold on Steam alone, the possibility of the $250,000,000 revenue milestone being met has become considerably high, therefore the attempt to delay payment through management changes will likely fail.
The player numbers in actual fact probably are higher than what's indicated here, as the game simultaneously launched as part of Xbox Game Preview, meaning 1,000,000 million sales do not represent the amount of players actively exploring the alien waters, as the subscription based model of the Xbox Game Pass service means that players do not necessarily purchase the game themselves. The initial reaction on Steam has been "Very Positive" with more than 1,000 players submitting reviews for Subnautica 2.
This launch signals a full recovery of the development team, which, after struggling for what could have been a complete closure of the studio and the project, managed to overcome a difficult legal process and to release one of 2026's most successful games. With a steady rate of players coming in, the studios will focus on the further development plans of the game, focusing on the cooperative features announced for the sequel.
