After Peak's success, this atmospheric new mountain-climbing indie game just scaled to 100,000 players in a single day

Climbing is all the rage these days. Scaling seemingly insurmountable heights has been a core instinct of gamers everywhere for years, whether intentional in the likes of Assassin's Creed, Grow Home, and Jusant, or the freeform hill-hopping of Skyrim. In 2025, Peak transformed the activity into a ridiculous co-operative adventure. Now, new indie game Cairn takes things in a rather different direction, opting for a much more personal, atmospheric, and contemplative approach to its mountainous challenges, and it's already proving a big winner.

Cairn comes from French studio The Game Bakers, known best for sci-fi slasher Furi and romantic space adventure Haven. Its latest outing puts you in the shoes of pro climber Aava, a reclusive sort who's made it her mission to be the first person to reach the summit of the notorious Mount Kami. It adopts a simulation-style approach that reminds me of the magnificent Grow Home where you move limbs manually, one by one, ensuring you keep a good hold and maintain your balance as you ascend.

This approach lets you take a completely freeform route upwards in the vein of Breath of the Wild, but much like Link you'll have to choose your path carefully if you want to actually get anywhere. By default, Aava will automatically select the best limb to move next based on her current stability and grip, but if you really want to test yourself there's the option to take complete manual control over this as well. I'd recommend steering clear here unless you're already an expert, however, as a wrong move can quickly see you plummeting.

The Game Bakers says it wants each wall to feel "like a boss fight," although it does offer customizable difficulty options if you're finding things a bit overwhelming. You'll need to keep track of resources like food, water, medicine, pitons, chalk, and finger tape to carefully consider what you're capable of. Pitons are particularly important, because they act as a limited stock of checkpoints that can be placed to keep you safe in case of a fall. You can also hang from them to let your limbs recover a little.

There are certainly some elements that will appeal to those that enjoyed the methodical meandering of Baby Steps, or even the likes of Death Stranding. Cairn also leans into Aava's character very deliberately; she's self-motivated and relentless, prone to bursts of emotion and willing to push herself further than she probably should at times. This is both her story and that of the environment, and they weave together in entrancing fashion.

As you ascend, you'll learn more about the mountain and encounter everything from signs of lost civilizations to other adventurers, and even the bodies of those that never made it back. Aava's climb isn't treated as purely triumphant, and the result is a tale that's powerful and resonant in a way that'll stay with you long after you step away. It also boasts some absolutely stunning landscapes that are worth the climb alone.

Cairn's launch has already generated plenty of hype, and The Game Bakers report that it's already shifted over 100,000 copies in its first 24 hours on sale. "We're so excited to see so many of you enjoy Cairn," it writes. "Thank you for joining the ascent. We hope you feel the passion we baked into the mountain."

The team has so far deployed one patch addressing minor bugs such as tutorials not disappearing, and offers a temporary solution for players who are running into fps issues on AMD RX 9000 series cards, the Steam Deck, and the ROG Ally X. For Windows users, you'll want to add '-force-d3d12' to your launch options, while on Linux and Steam Deck you should use '-force-vulkan' instead.

Cairn is available now on Steam, priced at $26.99 / £22.49 until Thursday February 12 thanks to a 10% launch discount, or $29.99 / £24.99 thereafter. It feels like an early high bar for 2026, both literally and figuratively, so be sure to give it a look if it sounds up your alley.