A brand-new co-op survival game called Scrap Mechanic has launched into 1.0 on Steam, making a big splash on the platform. This sandbox survival title has launched to “Very Positive” reviews on Steam and is already enjoying large player counts thanks to positive word of mouth.
Scrap Mechanic comes from developer Axolot Games, the first and only game developed by the studio. It was initially released into Early Access in January 2016, and went through a significant decade-long development cycle while being available to play. With numerous updates released over the years, it’s safe to say that Scrap Mechanic made great use of Early Access, and it is now reaping the rewards of those efforts with a great 1.0 launch.
Scrap Mechanic Combines Physics-Based Exploration With Co-Op Chaos
Check Out Scrap Mechanic on Steam
- Release Date: July 24, 2026
- Developer: Axolot Games
- Genre: Co-op, Survival, Sandbox
- Price: $28.99 USD
- Platforms: PC
Scrap Mechanic is a co-op survival sandbox game where players explore a dynamically generated open world, build vehicles and bases, farm and drill for materials, and fight dangerous robots along the way. Everything is physics-based, which makes creating the right vehicle for the right situation more important than ever, creating unique interactions and scenarios that no other player will experience. Players have three modes to choose from: Creative, Challenge, and Survival, each offering their own way of experiencing Scrap Mechanic.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
Scrap Mechanic Gameplay Features
- Single-player and co-op gameplay
- Dynamically generated open worlds
- Drill for scrap underground, turn it into unique vehicles for exploration, create automated machines, or build a home
- Farm crops for even more raw materials
- Dynamic combat against haywire robots, where your creations will be put to the test
- Extensive character customization
- Survival, Creative and Challenge modes
The 1.0 update for Scrap Mechanic is its biggest update yet. In Survival mode, there is now a full story from start to finish, and the world has been expanded with new locations and growlabs to explore, with reworked terrain generation under the hood. New building parts and new enemies have been added, but the highlight is arguably the Claygun, a new weapon that lets players shape the surrounding terrain. Steam Achievements have been added, along with a huge visual overhaul featuring a new dynamic lighting and weather system.
Across over 46,000 player reviews for Scrap Mechanic, 90% of them have been positive. This number increases to 91% when filtering by recent reviews, indicating that Axolot Games has done a great job ensuring a strong experience from Early Access all the way to full release. It would be interesting to learn what the influences are for the game – in some ways, the underground mining mechanics have something very Deep Rock Galactic about them, while the automation building elements have serious Satisfactory vibes. When putting everything together, Scrap Mechanic is distinctly unique, which is what really matters.
Scrap Mechanic‘s 1.0 launch has already been a huge success for Axolot Games. Since its release, the player count on Steam has exploded, with a 24-hour peak of 35,169 at the time of writing. This is the second-highest player count peak for the game of all time, bested only by the peak of 46,643 back in May 2020, when Survival Mode was first introduced. However, it’s still a major improvement over the low player counts the creative sandbox game has endured throughout the majority of its lifespan. If it can keep up the momentum and positive word-of-mouth continues to spread, there is no reason to suggest that Scrap Mechanic can’t beat that previous player count peak in the coming days.
