It’s only been a week since Darkest Dungeon II’s 1.0 version came out, and it’s just hit the 500,000 copies mark on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
According to developer Red Hook Studios, the roguelike sequel’s had an “incredible journey” since its official release on May 8. The sales benchmark was hit thanks to a rush of 230,000 new players, and those who’d already purchased it when it entered Early Access in October 2022.
Darkest Dungeon history
For some context, Darkest Dungeon I sold 650,000 copies in its first release week back in January 2016 thanks to Kickstarter backers and Early Access. It hit the 1 million mark once its PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions released in September of that same year. As of December 2022, it and its DLC have sold 16 million copies total.
So while Darkest Dungeon II has a long road to hit that metric, it’s possible that it may end up reaching 1 million copies faster. The series is now a known entity, so word of mouth regarding the original game and the sequel’s evolution via Early Access may be enough to get it past that milestone.
When asked on Twitter, Red Hook said its sequel would eventually release on consoles and macOS, but did not confirm a specific window or platforms.
Ahead of Darkest Dungeon II’s 1.0 release, Game Developer spoke with Red Hook co-founders Tyler Sigman and Chris Bourassa about how it grew during Early Access, and the lessons learned from its predecessor’s development period.