The sequel to the acclaimed roguelike deckbuilder Slay The Spire has already racked up huge numbers on Steam, as it officially launches in early access.
If you’ve ever wondered why there’s been an influx of indie deckbuilders over recent years, between Balatro and Inscryption, a core reason is the success of 2019’s Slay The Spire.
The roguelike deckbuilder developed by Mega Crit was a critical and commercial success before it even officially launched, selling over 1.5 million copies in early access. While there’s no concrete figures of how much it’s sold since, it was nominated for various awards at The Game Awards, D.I.C.E., and 2019’s Golden Joysticks.
Its success has led to the development of a sequel, which launched in early access on March 5, 2026. Within a day of launch (via SteamDB), Slay The Spire 2 has achieved a concurrent peak of 282,314 players, and is currently the fourth most-played game on Steam.
At the time of writing, it is ahead of Bongo Cat, Rust, and Apex Legends, and only behind the platform’s unshakeable top three: Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG: Battlegrounds.
For an indie deckbuilder, these are massive numbers. To compare against other high-profile indie sequels, Hades 2’s concurrent peak was 112,947 players, while Hollow Knight: Silksong achieved 587,150 players, but that was arguably the most anticipated indie game ever.
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Where can I play Slay The Spire 2 now?
The sequel to Slay The Spire, which adds new characters, environments, and a co-op mode, is only available in early access on Steam. You can buy it for £19.99, or you can buy a bundle which includes the original game for £22.48, but only for a limited time.
The developers have noted that the price for Slay The Spire 2 will increase when it does leave early access, so if you’re planning to buy it on Steam, you’re probably better off doing so sooner rather than later.
When is Slay The Spire 2 leaving early access?
Mega Crit has not announced a specific date, but the original Slay The Spire spent around a year and a half in early access before it launched, so the developer is expecting the sequel to be something similar.
When asked how long it will spend in early access in a Q&A on Steam, Mega Crit wrote: ‘Until the game feels great! Last time we thought it would be about a year and it took about 1.5 years. So perhaps in the same one to two year range.’
In other words, the game will probably only fully launch in 2027 at the earliest.
Is Slay The Spire 2 coming to PS5, Switch 2, Xbox, and mobile?
On Slay The Spire’s Discord (via Reddit), Mega Crit said it wants to release Slay The Spire 2 on as many platforms ‘as humanly possible’, but for the early access portion, it will remain locked to Steam.
Asked last year if they’re planning to launch Slay The Spire 2 on mobile, the developer replied: ‘More realistically, we’re targeting Steam for early access and then major consoles and mobile for full release.
‘However, some of this could change due to how long we may be in early access, general demand, certification processes, how much Deadlock we play each night, what our workload looks like, and other unforeseen circumstances.’
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