Game News

Hytale's early access opens to a reported 2.8 million players, but what does that count?

Hytale, the Minecraft-style sandbox RPG that was cancelled in June 2025 and then bought back from Riot Games by its original co-founder, entered early access on 13 January. Notebookcheck reported that it launched at 3pm UTC, only through the official website and not on Steam, with editions at $23.79, $41.64 and $83.29. The developers had expected more than one million players on day one.

The turnout went past that. MeinMMO reported a figure of 2.8 million players on launch evening, taken from a screenshot posted by content creator Myne, and said Hytale became the biggest gaming category on Twitch with more than 400,000 viewers. PureXbox said concurrent players reportedly reached almost 3 million at one point, with about 420,000 people watching on Twitch.

“We are planning for a console release at a later stage.” — Hytale team, via PureXbox

How each outlet framed it

• MeinMMO — the numbers and their limits, plus a launch-day hotfix for crashes and login problems that added no new content.
• PureXbox — the comeback story and the Xbox angle: early access is PC-only, and a console version needs significant backend work.
• Notebookcheck — a buyer's guide with the launch time, editions, prices and a game overview.

Where the numbers differ: MeinMMO said it was unclear whether 2.8 million counted logins, concurrent players or copies sold, while PureXbox described the nearly 3 million figure as concurrent players.