Hollow Knight
Team Cherry
Hollow Knight is the reference 2D map for a generation of Steam metroidvanias: sparse dialogue, dense rooms, brutal bosses.
What kind of game is it?
Exploration-action with ability-gated regions. Saves persist; deaths cost geo and position, not the save file.
Who is it for?
For players who crave a map that stays, and a death that only costs geo.
- Loop
- Metroidvania exploration
- Sessions
- Long sessions
- Progression
- Campaign
- Players
- Single-player
- Structure
- Metroidvania
- Tone
- Dark · Brutal
Game DNA
What playing it feels like, out of 100. Our reading, separate from Steam reviews.
- Progression80
Estimate
- Social18
Estimate
Key Steam facts
Steam store figures, checked 13 Sept 2026.
2017-02-24
Checked 17 Aug 2026.
Steam positive percent.
Checked 13 Sept 2026.
Checked 13 Sept 2026.
How many people play Hollow Knight?
Estimates from public Steam data, not figures from the studio. Ranges, not exact numbers.
Steam reviews × 25 to 55.
Copies × current price × 50–80% (sales, regional prices). Before Steam's cut, refunds and tax.
Most people playing at the same moment, per SteamCharts.
Peak that month: 11,063.
Half of 300 recent reviewers played 15.7–87.6 h. 1% under 2 h.
Players over time
Where the players are
Languages of the last 300 Steam reviews. A proxy for regions, not a country split.
- English37%
- Portuguese (Brazil)14%
- Russian14%
- Simplified Chinese12%
- Spanish (Spain)11%
- Spanish (Latin America)3%
Hollow Knight players also play
Games played for more than an hour in 40 public Steam libraries of recent reviewers. Each one is played by at least 4 of these players and is more common here than across all libraries we read (× how much).
- Hollow Knight: Silksong38% · ×4.9
- Celeste30% · ×5.7
- Undertale38% · ×3.1
- PEAK50% · ×2.2
- Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition20% · ×6
- Geometry Dash30% · ×2.6
- Enter the Gungeon18% · ×3.6
- tModLoader30% · ×2
- Terraria48% · ×1.5
- ULTRAKILL18% · ×2.9
Steam data checked 4 Oct 2026
What makes it different?
Atmosphere does more work than a quest log. The combat is precise enough that clones which only copy the art direction fail in the player's hands.
Core mechanics
Similar games
Full games-like page →
Related games
Nearby games. Not always a direct substitute.
Related rankings
Hollow Knight — launch intelligence
Metroidvania reference text. released 24 February 2017, 557,219 reviews at 96.9% on 17 August 2026. No demo, no Next Fest — the format barely existed.
Store price checked 13 Sept 2026.
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