Steam has a new #1 best-selling game that has dethroned Crimson Desert in the process, and held off what many thought would be its successor, Capcom’s Pragmata. Pragmata is one of the best games so far this year, and could find itself in Game of the Year conversations come the end of the year. In the meantime, though, it’s had to move over for an unexpected hit, a new survival game that was recently released via Steam Early Access.
The other week, independent developer Kraken Express — which has never released a game before — debuted with the early access release of Windrose, a pirate PvE survival adventure game. And obviously, it’s proving to be an incredible debut. Not only is it the best-selling game on Steam right now, but it has an 89% approval rating after more than 13,000 user reviews. This is especially impressive considering it’s an early access game, which are — in theory — not supposed to be as polished and robust as their final product counterparts.
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2026’s Best Pirate Game
For those just learning about Windrose, it is a pirate game with the classic survival gameplay trifecta of “build, craft, and survive.” And in this case, you need to survive against other players while you explore land and sea. In the process, you will pass through various procedurally generated biomes full of quests, dungeons, and mysteries. To best do this, you will need not just a ship, but a crew. This is where naval combat comes into play, and it is complete with boarding actions and bolstered by seamless transitions between ship and shore. And as its 89% approval rating notes, it’s pretty good, and it should be because while it is an early access game, Kraken Express is charging $30.
“Tired of losing all your hard-earned stuff to sweaty jobless cheaters,” reads the top user review for the game. “You have arrived…. finally a game that is actually fun and gives you the freedom to explore, create, and progress as you play with your friends and not be worried about your game being ruined by other players.”
How long the game is going to be in early access remains to be seen, but so far, support for it has been active, though certainly not the fastest, which isn’t surprising considering this is not a AAA studio at the helm. And so far, it is retaining players well. Its peak concurrent player count was a massive 222,134. Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, it did 196,422. This is a little bit of a drop off, but nearly 200k concurrent players is still huge.
Lastly, for those curious, the new PC game is not Steam Deck Verified; however, Valve does list the survival game as “Playable” on the handheld machine. This could change in the coming weeks or months, but right now, there is no word of it changing.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum.
