If you’ve been living under a rock or hate deckbuilders—both understandable places to be coming from these days—you might have missed that Slay the Spire 2 is basically 2026’s Hollow Knight: Silksong. While hailing from different genres, both indie games are sequels to big hits whose fans have been waiting patiently for the follow-ups. And just like it did with Silksong, Steam buckled under the weight of all those fans smashing the download button when Slay the Spire 2 launched on Thursday.
The game went live in Early Access on Steam in the early afternoon and players were immediately greeted by stalled store pages and purchases that got lost in limbo. Thankfully, the digital commerce chaos only lasted about a half hour or so. Slay the Spire 2 has already dominated the concurrent charts on Valve’s storefront with over 185,000 players. That’s nearly double what Marathon‘s at currently, despite being a single-player roguelike about using cards to do elaborate math (think Balatro but Dungeons & Dragons).
one of the most insulting things to see from steam after THEIR cart system crashes for half an hour straight pic.twitter.com/hNku1RfNhx
— pachiii (@gordieluvr69) March 5, 2026
The best part about moving the release date of Esoteric Ebb from 5th -> 3rd is that I can play Slay the Spire 2 all evening now.
(The second best part was that Steam didn’t crash for half an hour on the 3rd) pic.twitter.com/Q0V2wjDTsW
— Christoffer Bodegård (@chrisbodegard) March 5, 2026
did slay the spire 2 crash steam 😭 pic.twitter.com/bDB7nbu9Td
— amoeba 🦠 of #indextwt, the dixiong star (@amoebatwt) March 5, 2026
poker night at the inventory killed steam pic.twitter.com/cqaxBnCDBq
— sulazur (@OpenBloke) March 5, 2026
“The best part about moving the release date of Esoteric Ebb from 5th -> 3rd is that I can play Slay the Spire 2 all evening now,” wrote the developer behind this week’s surprisingly excellent new RPG. “(The second best part was that Steam didn’t crash for half an hour on the 3rd).” Lots of other developers rushed their games out early or delayed them in order to get out of the way of Slay the Spire 2‘s launch blast radius. With good reason, it now turns out.
Owners of the first Slay the Spire are being rewarded with a $2.50 discount on the new release. Normally $25, you can get Slay the Spire 2 for just $22.50 if you’ve already proven your loyalty and/or obsession, depending on how you look at it. There’s also a bundle to get both games for just $28. That’s Slay the Spire, an all-time great, for less than a quarter pounder.
