Windrose sails past 1 million copies sold in six days as it hits 200,000 concurrent players

Windrose, the latest survival-crafter to take Steam by storm, started selling like hot cakes the moment it launched—or, to be era-appropriate, like salt pork and bug-infested hardtack. It's continued to rake in the doubloons since launch, and in less than a week, has "plundered" the 1 million copies sold milestone.

The team at Kraken Express thanked players in a Steam community blog post, which also notes that the game recently peaked at 200,000 simultaneous players on the platform. "Your support for the game is absolutely astonishing, and your patience while we are working on fixes is truly heart-warming."

"We read your reviews and comments, watch your videos and streams, and sometimes, honestly, shed a pirate-y tear of happiness, because now when the game is out you share our dream of swashbuckling adventure," the post continues. "And there are boars, too, we know, but whatever does not send you flying into the nearest tree makes you stronger, right?

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A graphic heading up the post notes that "the boar got a promotion," which is a joke I'm sure one of Windrose's new fans can explain to me. While the game's familiar loop of farming resources and poring over different ceiling tile shapes might be a weird fit for a game about roleplaying as a pirate, it's clear that the game has reeled in a sizable audience anyway. That's no easy feat these days.

It's not been a perfect run so far—the developers have turned to the playerbase to ask for help getting its online multiplayer working properly—but how many survival games are arriving on storefronts fully-formed anyway?

I think plenty of people will play anything with a reasonable facsimile of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag's ship-to-ship battles—with the exception of Skull and Bones—and it sounds like Windrose has that on lock. PC Gamer senior editor Christopher Livingston said the naval scraps were his favorite part of the game in his explainer: "you just steer and shoot and press a key to use items like repair kits. Simple, but great fun."