Seven years of memes, fake announcements, and clown makeup finally ended on September 4, 2026 — and within hours, Hollow Knight: Silksong crashed the Nintendo eShop, overwhelmed Steam, and turned X into a wall of Hornet fan art. Team Cherry, a tiny three-person studio from Adelaide, just pulled off the biggest indie launch in gaming history. So was it worth the wait? Short answer: absolutely. Long answer: keep reading, because Pharloom is hiding secrets nobody saw coming.
The Launch That Broke the Internet
When Team Cherry shadow-dropped the release date confirmation in late August, fans led by co-creators Ari Gibson and William Pellen barely had time to breathe. On launch day, Silksong shot straight to number one on the Steam global bestseller chart, knocked massive AAA titles off the front page of the Nintendo Switch eShop, and racked up over 500,000 concurrent players in its first 24 hours. The Nintendo eShop in North America and Europe buckled under the load, with error messages greeting players desperate to guide Hornet up the haunted kingdom of Pharloom. Even PlayStation Store and Xbox Game Pass, where the game launched day one, reported record indie download numbers.
It is the kind of chaos usually reserved for Grand Theft Auto trailers or a new Nintendo console reveal. Except this time, the star is a needle-wielding bug princess with a $19.99 price tag.
Hornet Is a Completely Different Beast From the Knight
If you played the original Hollow Knight, forget the silent, fragile little Knight. Hornet, princess-protector of Hallownest, talks, sprints, and fights with terrifying grace. Her needle-and-thread combat system lets her heal on the move, vault over bosses with acrobatic silk traps, and craft tools like throwing daggers, spike balls, and the fan-favorite Sting Shard. Reviewers at IGN, who awarded the game a glowing score, called her one of the most expressive protagonists in metroidvania history, praising standout NPCs like the singing pilgrim Sherma and the mysterious bone-scholar Lace.
Pharloom itself is bigger, denser, and crueler than Hallownest ever was. The pilgrimage route from the moss-choked Moss Grotto to the gear-driven Citadel at the peak spans four massive acts, with over 200 enemies, 40-plus bosses, and a Silk Soul mode waiting for masochists who finish the main story. Early speedrunners are already clocking 30-hour first playthroughs — nearly double the original game.
Critics Are Calling It a Masterpiece — With One Warning
The review embargo lifted to near-universal acclaim. OpenCritic shows Silksong sitting at a 91 average, with outlets praising its hand-drawn art, Christopher Larkin returning with a haunting new orchestral score, and boss fights that already rank among the genre’s best. The fight against the Last Judge and the duel with Lace in the Citadel are being clipped, shared, and dissected across YouTube and Twitch, where streamers like Ludwig Ahgren and IronPineapple pulled six-figure audiences on launch night.
The one warning everyone repeats: this game is HARD. Even veterans who no-hit Hornet in Hollow Knight’s Godhome are getting humbled by Pharloom’s second-act bosses. Team Cherry has already promised a day-one-adjacent balance patch, but director William Pellen insists the difficulty is intentional — perseverance, grace, and grit are literally the themes of the story.
Why Silksong Matters for Indie Games
Here is the bigger picture. Silksong was made by three people, with no crunch-fueled 500-person team, no live-service battle pass, and no $70 price tag. Yet it outsold Starfield’s Shattered Space expansion, the Monster Hunter Wilds update, and Marvel’s Wolverine pre-orders during launch week, according to SteamDB estimates. Analysts at Circana are already calling it proof that players are starving for handcrafted single-player experiences over endless sequels.
- Price: $19.99 on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox, free on Game Pass
- Playtime: 30-60 hours for completionists, with Silk Soul mode adding a full remix
- Soundtrack: Christopher Larkin delivers 50+ new tracks recorded with a full orchestra
- What is next: Team Cherry confirms free post-launch content packs are already in development
Fans are also connecting Silksong’s lore back to Hollow Knight in wild ways. Is the Pale King connected to the Citadel’s cogwork faith? Is Sherma secretly related to Quirrel? Theory videos are exploding, and dataminers claim to have found unused dialogue hinting at a Hornet DLC chapter set after the true ending.
What Do You Think?
Did Team Cherry just deliver the game of the decade, or did seven years of hype set expectations no game could meet? Are you team silk-tools speedrun or team explore-every-corner completionist? And be honest — how many times has Lace already destroyed you? Drop your Hornet hot takes in the comments, because the age of Silksong has officially begun, and Pharloom is only getting deeper from here. For more September gaming chaos, check out our coverage of State of Play September 2026 with Marvel’s Wolverine, the Nintendo Direct September 2026 showcase, and the Under Night In-Birth II Zohar DLC reveal.
