How to Fish: a million players in two days, 374k peak
A small game about fishing with a shotgun, priced at 7.99 dollars, turned into one of the loudest surprises on Steam this summer. Dazed Games — a studio whose patch notes are signed by just two people — released How to Fish on 20 August 2026 with a 38% launch discount for one week.
A million in two days
On 23 August the studio posted an announcement titled “1 MILLION FISHERMEN IN 2 DAYS?!?!1?” — a million players in under 48 hours after launch. For an indie release with no marketing budget that is a rare scale.
The concurrent peak landed on 26 August: 373,971 players at once, according to the SteamDB post in the game’s news feed.
Rating and press
As of 31 August 2026 the game has 43,168 reviews: 40,961 positive and 2,207 negative, which gives the Very Positive status (checked by querying the public Steam reviews API for app 4001890).
The press followed: the Steam news feed carried pieces from Rock Paper Shotgun on 24 August and GamingOnLinux the same day. Both describe the same phenomenon — a scrappy co-op game that hundreds of thousands of people suddenly play.
Why it landed
The pitch fits in one sentence: it is fishing where you may shoot the fish with a shotgun, and up to eight of your friends sit in the boat next to you. The game takes one gigabyte, runs on a GeForce GTX 1050 and costs less than lunch — the barrier to entry is close to zero.
The second factor is update pace. At least seven patches shipped in the first week after launch, from 1.0.4 with eight-player lobbies to 1.0.10, which the developers themselves called their biggest yet. For the game itself, see the beginner guide and the all bosses breakdown.
Frequently asked questions
When did How to Fish come out?
On 20 August 2026, with a 38% launch discount for one week, per the [release announcement on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/4001890/view/1841579228665808).
How much does it cost?
7.99 USD list price on the [Steam store page](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4001890/How_to_Fish/). One platform only — Windows.
What is its rating?
Very Positive: 40,961 positive reviews against 2,207 negative, 43,168 in total. Figures pulled from the public Steam reviews API on 31 August 2026.
How many people played at once?
The peak was 373,971 concurrent players on 26 August 2026, per the SteamDB post in the game's news feed.