How to Fish leads the friendslop trend: peak doubles Peak
Contents
How to Fish now leads the friendslop genre trend — according to SteamDB data cited by GamesRadar+ on August 26, 2026, the co-op fishing game hit a peak of 373,971 concurrent players on Steam just five days after its August 20, 2026 launch. The official Steam news feed for the game recorded the same peak that same week. The number is more than double the all-time record set by Peak, and almost eight times the all-time record set by Big Walk.
What “friendslop” means
“Friendslop” is the term GamesRadar+ uses for a genre phenomenon: a wave of cheap co-op hits that release one after another and unexpectedly rocket up the Steam charts. The outlet groups three games under this label — How to Fish, Peak, and Big Walk. What they share is simple co-op gameplay and a sharp post-launch popularity spike, which the outlet frames as a shared trend rather than describing each game in isolation.
Three peaks side by side
GamesRadar+’s core point isn’t just that How to Fish succeeded, but how large that success is next to the other two games in the same genre trend. All three numbers below are each game’s all-time concurrent-player record, current as of September 1, 2026.
| Game | Peak concurrent players | How much smaller than How to Fish |
|---|---|---|
| How to Fish | 373,971 | — |
| Peak | 170,759 | more than double |
| Big Walk | 46,409 | almost eight times |
The framing “more than double” and “almost eight times” comes directly from GamesRadar+’s reporting, based on the three peak figures listed above.
For a wider comparison of How to Fish against other Steam fishing games, see How to Fish vs other Steam fishing games: 4 games side by side.
A game with no publisher
GamesRadar+ specifically calls out who is behind each game in the trend. Peak is published by Aggro Crab and Landfall Games — meaning it has a publishing team behind it. How to Fish, on the other hand, is self-published by the two-person studio Dazed Games: no publisher, none of the resources a larger team would bring.
The outlet frames this directly as a sign of success without a publisher: How to Fish built its 373,971-player peak entirely on its own. That’s what sets the game apart even against the already-successful Peak and Big Walk in the same genre trend.
For how steadily How to Fish holds its online numbers against other Steam fishing games, see How to Fish’s online player counts compared with other Steam fishing games.
The next day — a major patch
On August 27, 2026, the day after GamesRadar+’s article, the official Steam feed published PATCH 1.0.10, titled “FANART & PATCH 1.0.10”. Per that same feed, it’s the game’s biggest update since launch.
The timing is notable: the press wave around “friendslop” and the record peak landed in almost the same week as the game’s biggest patch. What exactly changed in version 1.0.10 falls outside the facts covered in this topic, so we’re not listing the detailed patch notes here rather than adding anything the source doesn’t state.
For how How to Fish’s patches generally connect to its Steam reviews, see How to Fish patches and reviews: do updates show up in the score.
Why it matters
For the class of co-op indie hits, a 373,971-player peak isn’t just one lucky release — it’s a signal that the whole “friendslop” class of projects can draw an audience comparable to major releases, with a two-person team and no publisher. The fact that GamesRadar+ coined a shared term for three specific games, rather than covering each one on its own, suggests the outlet sees this as a genre-level pattern rather than an isolated case.
At the same time, it’s worth not conflating two different metrics. A concurrent-player peak is an instantaneous record, not a sustained online level. How stable How to Fish’s audience stays after the initial spike of interest has not been officially reported.
In short
According to SteamDB data cited by GamesRadar+ on August 26, 2026, How to Fish set a peak of 373,971 concurrent players five days after launch — more than double Peak’s record (170,759) and almost eight times Big Walk’s (46,409). The next day, August 27, PATCH 1.0.10 arrived — per the official Steam feed, the game’s biggest update since launch.
Frequently asked questions
What is friendslop?
A term GamesRadar+ uses for a wave of cheap co-op hits like How to Fish, Peak, and Big Walk — games with simple gameplay that unexpectedly rocket up the Steam charts.
How much higher is How to Fish's peak than Peak's?
373,971 versus 170,759 concurrent players — more than double, according to SteamDB data cited by GamesRadar+ on August 26, 2026.
How much higher is How to Fish's peak than Big Walk's?
373,971 versus 46,409 concurrent players — almost eight times higher, per the same GamesRadar+ figures.
Who publishes How to Fish?
The game was self-published by the two-person studio Dazed Games, with no publisher. Peak, by comparison, is published by Aggro Crab and Landfall Games.
When was How to Fish's latest major patch?
August 27, 2026, the day after GamesRadar+'s article — PATCH 1.0.10, titled "FANART & PATCH 1.0.10", which the official Steam feed calls the game's biggest update since launch.
Is a player peak the same as a game's steady online count?
No. A concurrent-player peak is an instantaneous record, not a sustained online level. How stable How to Fish's audience stays after the spike has not been officially reported.