Silksong’s Steam Review Crisis: Negative Feedback Doubles Original Hollow Knight

When Hollow Knight: Silksong finally launched in September 2025, it was supposed to be a victory lap for Team Cherry. The sequel had been one of the most anticipated indie games in recent memory, and its arrival set Steam ablaze with record-breaking player numbers. Yet the glow around that launch was quickly shadowed by a fierce debate over difficulty, localization, and review scores. By the end of its first week, Silksong had already accumulated more than twice the number of negative Steam user reviews than the original Hollow Knight had received in eight and a half years.

A Record-Breaking Launch With Sharp Edges 🎮

Team Cherry had spent years building anticipation for Silksong, and when the game arrived, players flooded the storefronts. The launch was spectacular enough to break almost every platform it touched, a sign of just how large the Hollow Knight audience had become. But technical strain was only one part of the story. There was the now-infamous bench, a moment that traumatized some players, and there were widespread complaints about the game’s localization. Those issues, however, paled in comparison with the growing chorus of players unhappy with the game’s difficulty.

The backlash did not take long to materialize. Within days, Steam user reviews turned negative at a pace rarely seen for a game with such high expectations. According to data from SteamDB, Hollow Knight: Silksong received 32,490 negative user reviews on Steam over its first six days. The original Hollow Knight, by contrast, has only received 13,690 negative reviews in eight and a half years. That means Silksong had well over double the negative reviews of its predecessor and was rapidly approaching triple the amount.

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