Subnautica 2 officially (and finally) launched into Early Access on May 14, 2026. You can see for yourself on PC (Steam and Epic) and Xbox, and purchase this long-awaited alien ocean survival game. All in spite of a months-long sabotage campaign by publisher Krafton to boot, who began that sordid affair by illegally firing the co-founders of developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment back in July 2025. The reason for that sabotage? Well, it was because Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han really wanted to avoid a $250 million USD payout to Unknown Worlds for breaking profit milestone goals for Krafton because he thought it would make him look like a pushover to the other CEOs, and he thought Subnautica 2 would be the game that would break that milestone. Well, as it turns out, he might be right.
IGN and other gaming news outlets have reported that Subnautica 2 broke two million sales on the day of its Early Access release. In fact, the game broke that milestone just 12 hours after launch. As of this writing, that was five days ago, so who knows what the sales numbers are right now. However, it’s pretty safe to say that Unknown Worlds are well on their way to earning that $250 million bonus, if they haven’t already done so at that sales pace.
And as a further tidbit of good news: peak concurrent players of Subnautica 2 on launch day on Steam alone was over 467,000. On all platforms combined: it totaled out to over 651,000. With well over half a million active players at its peak, I think it’s safe to say that Subnautica 2‘s Early Access launch was (and still is) a veritable success story.
Subnautica 2 Breaks Sales and Concurrent Player Milestones on Launch Day
With those utterly massive sales numbers, I think Unknown Worlds have another hit on their hands. After playing the game for dozens of hours myself, I can also safely say that they have learned from both the successes of the first Subnautica and the failures of Subnautica: Below Zero. Subnautica 2 feels like a polished gem that took the best parts of both of Unknown Worlds’ previous Subnautica games, and made it into a near-perfect game even at Early Access launch.
Furthermore, it also shows that Krafton’s sabotage has largely failed. Yes, there’s some drama brewing over the insane EULA agreement Krafton forced down upon Subnautica 2. However, that has largely not deterred players from buying the game and recommending it to others. I do believe that Unknown Worlds are going to get that $250 million payout, and maybe then, they can finally divest themselves from a publisher that is determined to operate in bad faith.
What do you all think? Are you a fellow Subnautica 2 player eagerly following the good news about the game? Or are you a new player who wants to take a dip into a strange ocean on another world? Tell us your oceanic thoughts in the comments section below.
Source: IGN
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