Chart-topping new Steam survival game “immensely grateful” for positive reception

With recent success stories such as Palworld, Abiotic Factor, Enshrouded, and V Rising, there’s been plenty of competition of late to the biggest survival games on Steam – Rust, Valheim, Ark, Sons of the Forest, and so on. All of which is to say that it’s an increasingly crowded space to muscle into. Yet colossal contender Soulmask appears to have just done that, breaking through to the top of the global Steam bestseller list and doing so while holding a positive Steam review score – often an early stumbling block for new games due to potential launch issues.

Soulmask is a potentially gargantuan offering – speaking with PCGamesN at GDC, its creators say that your Soulmask playthrough time could be as high as 500 hours if you’re a true completionist. That, combined with a map that’s around 50% larger than that of Ark and a system that allows you to possess your town NPCs to take advantage of their special skills, and further enhance those abilities using a suite of powerful masks, makes this one of the most distinctive survival games to launch so far in 2024.

“For everyone at Soulmask, the hours since the EA launch have been the most exciting moments,” the team at CampFire Studio and Qooland Games writes in a blog post celebrating a 100,000 sales milestone. “In just four hours after launch, we reached the top two on the global bestseller list, and after eight hours we climbed to the top position for paid games worldwide.

“Even more important than these achievements is our current Steam rating of ‘very positive,’” it continues. “This shows that our game has been well-received by every one of you. Is there any more exciting news than that? We are immensely grateful to every chieftain who has encouraged us, allowing us to continue improving Soulmask. We also thank those who have provided us with constructive feedback; each piece of your valuable advice can motivate us to make Soulmask even better.”

The weekend has seen Soulmask continue to climb, reaching an even higher peak player count of just over 30,000 concurrent users on Saturday June 1, and looks on course to go even higher on Sunday. “Of course, that’s just the beginning,” the team says. “In the countless days and nights ahead, we will do our utmost to improve the quality of Soulmask.” The team has opened a Discord server to help quickly address any issues, adding, “Your support and feedback truly make us realize that we are not good enough yet.”

If you want to join in on the action, there’s still time to take advantage of a Steam sale giving you 10% off the game’s launch price. Soulmask is on sale for $26.99 / £22.49 through Thursday June 6.

Alternatively, here are even more of the best open-world games to sate your need for exploration and adventure, along with the best RPGs if that tickles your fancy.

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