‘Subnautica 2’ Swims to 2 Million Sales in 12 Hours, and Krafton’s Nightmare Is Just Beginning

Few game launches in recent memory have carried as much dramatic weight as ‘Subnautica 2.’ Unknown Worlds Entertainment, the studio behind the beloved original underwater survival experience, spent the better part of a year fighting in court just to get the sequel in front of players. That the game exists at all in its current form is the result of a Delaware court ruling, a reinstated CEO, and one of the most baffling corporate scandals the games industry has produced in years.

Krafton originally acquired Unknown Worlds in 2021 for a $500 million equity payout, with an additional earnout of up to $250 million tied to the commercial performance of ‘Subnautica 2.’ When it became clear the sequel was on track to meet those targets, Krafton removed studio co-founders Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and CEO Ted Gill, with the founders alleging the real motive was to dodge the massive bonus. A Delaware court eventually sided with Unknown Worlds, reinstating Gill as CEO and extending the deadline for the studio to hit the earnout target by nine months.

With that legal scaffolding in place, ‘Subnautica 2’ finally dove into Early Access on May 14th, and the response has been nothing short of extraordinary. The game sold two million copies worldwide within just 12 hours of launching, with concurrent players across Steam, Xbox Series X and S, and the Epic Games Store exceeding 651,000. Steam alone delivered a peak of more than 467,000 concurrent players, a figure nine times larger than the original ‘Subnautica’ achieved at launch.

The momentum did not stop at sales figures. ‘Subnautica 2’ climbed to the top of Steam’s Top Sellers chart above ‘Counter-Strike 2,’ and the original ‘Subnautica’ and ‘Subnautica: Below Zero’ both followed it into the top six, riding the sequel’s wave of attention. On Steam, the game has accumulated over 20k positive user reviews against roughly 1,700 negative scores, landing a 93% Very Positive rating (currently).

Before launch, the Unknown Worlds team described ‘Subnautica 2’ as bigger and more polished than any of the studio’s previous Early Access releases, and the game had already surpassed five million Steam wishlists before it officially went live, with all of those wishlists clearly converting into purchases at a remarkable rate. The numbers have led many in the industry to conclude that Krafton’s worst fears about the earnout are about to become reality. Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, who previously reviewed the original purchase agreement, said it now looks certain that Krafton will be forced to pay the $250 million bonus it tried so hard to avoid.

The irony of Krafton’s position is difficult to overstate. A court filing revealed that the company’s CEO allegedly consulted an AI chatbot to brainstorm ways of avoiding the bonus payment, a detail that became one of the most widely mocked footnotes in recent gaming history. Meanwhile, the studio those executives fought to control has just delivered one of the biggest Early Access launches the platform has ever seen. The players have voted with their wallets, and the verdict is overwhelming.

Let us know in the comments what you think about ‘Subnautica 2’s’ record-breaking launch and whether you have already taken the plunge into its alien ocean.