After six years of waiting, Team Cherry’s long awaited Hollow Knight sequel, Silksong, launched globally today at 10 am EDT. Unfortunately, fans may have to wait a little longer to play the action-adventure game. Online retailers such as the Xbox and PlayStation stores, Steam, and Nintendo eShop are rife with loading screens and error messages as people rush to buy it.
On Steam, players trying to add the game to their cart or complete their purchase are being met with the same message: an image of a frustrated blob with the caption “Something went wrong.” Switch players on Bluesky say the eShop hangs on loading screens or error messages. On the PlayStation store, the game appears to have disappeared entirely for some players, while it’s not available to purchase for others. According to Verge reporter Tom Warren, fans trying to buy the game on Xbox Game Pass should remote-install it via the console’s website.
In lieu of playing the game, many fans are turning to social media to vent their frustrations.
“STEAM, LET ME PLAY SILKSONG,” posted one Bluesky user. “First boss of #Silksong is really tough,” wrote another with a picture of Steam’s error message. Twitch streamers trying to play the game for their viewers are running into similar problems. On X, user @HaydenSchiff posted a screenshot of many streamers encountering the same Steam error message.
Players who’ve successfully managed to buy the game, meanwhile, are gloating about their success. “God’s favorite,” wrote one with a picture of Silksong on their Switch 2.
Silksong, announced in 2019, is the followup to Team Cherry’s debut title, Hollow Knight. A winning combination of Dark Souls-like difficulty and cartoonish charm, Hollow Knight became an award-winning indie darling that sold over 15 million copies—an impressive feat for its tiny, Australia-based developer. While the team initially planned to release Silksong as downloadable content, the project eventually ballooned into a full-fledged title that took seven years to finish.
Despite years of few updates and little news, the Silksong fanbase has remained active. Some fan communities have even turned waiting into a game, while others dedicated their time to (mostly non-existent) daily news updates.
The weeks leading up to Silksong, available today for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, have been chaotic for both game makers and fans. After developers made a surprise announcement in August that the game would launch in two weeks, at least half a dozen fellow indie developers delayed their own games to make way. “Dropping the GTA of indie games with 2 weeks notice makes everyone freak out,” wrote Demonschool developer Necrosoft on Bluesky after announcing its own delay.
The game’s popularity is undeniable. As of writing, Silksong is Steam’s top-selling game; it already has more than 100,000 concurrent players on that platform alone. For those still trying to buy a copy, it turns out years of waiting may have been good practice for launch day.
