Megabonk continues to fly, trumping Hades 2 as Steam's biggest new roguelike

Adding to what was already a rather long list of 'indies appearing out of nowhere to dominate the Steam charts and flog a million copies in 2025,' Megabonk continues to absolutely crash it. Evolving the core experience of Vampire Survivors into something more dynamic and 3D, its addictive loop, huge hordes of enemies, and zany lineup of characters have made it the latest unexpected hit. Despite a fair amount of competition, and the recent 1.0 launch of GOTY contender Hades 2, Megabonk is currently Steam's biggest roguelike and one of its most-played games, period.

If you're yet to play Megabonk, there's a good chance you've watched a big streamer giving it a spin - it's become a bit of a darling on Twitch. If you don't fit into either of those categories and are wondering how the hell a game that looks this, erm, rustic is outperforming a critically acclaimed masterpiece like Hades 2, here's the lowdown.

In Megabonk, you pick from a roster of 20 unlockable characters, each with a unique weapon and passive ability. You drop into a large, procedurally generated map, tracking down chests that will grant you new upgrades. Like all good bullet hell games, your weapons automatically fire at the hordes of enemies that constantly hunt you down, so your main focus is on movement, making smart choices with upgrades, and locating gates that spawn bosses in order to achieve the best run possible.

Created by a solo developer, Megabonk launched a few weeks ago to a strong reception, but in the last ten days or so, it's ascended to new heights. Its concurrent Steam player count peaked over the weekend at 117,000 people - that beats Hades 2's record of 112,000 and massively surpasses the 77,000 peak achieved by Vampire Survivors.

Of course, it's worth considering that these two games are available elsewhere and aren't exclusive to Steam like Megabonk, but it does show the lay of the land on Valve's platform.

Megabonk's regularly dipped into the top ten most played games on Steam over the last few days, and a glance at the charts today, October 8, places it well above Hades 2 and other big names like Path of Exile 2, Warframe, and Dead by Daylight.

With its combination of an addictive gameplay loop, some surreal humor, and a very generous price point of just $9.99 / £8.50, it's easy to see why it's become so popular. Of course, that popularity (and its rough-and-ready approach) comes with some downsides - developer 'veninad' recently confirmed they're rolling out a patch to fix the game's leaderboards, because they "had some cheaters brick them." But on the whole, Megabonk can be confidently dropped into my overflowing bucket of '2025 breakout indie games.' We've got a Megabonk tier list, by the way, if you're already deep into the game and want some guidance on the best weapons and items.

So, has Megabonk got you hooked, or is something else stealing all your free time at the minute? Come and let us know in the PCGamesN Discord server.