Even Though It Didn’t Win Game Of The Year, Hollow Knight: Silksong Is Outselling All Of The Other Nominees
Josh has been playing video games for longer than he can remember, kicking things off with a Master System before upgrading to a Mega Drive. Covering the industry since 2018, if a game has a strong story – or even better, the decisions you make determine the course of that story – odds are he’s going to like it. Or, you know, put Sonic or Pikachu on the cover and that’ll get his attention too.
Despite being the most anticipated indie game of all time and more than living up to the expectations, Hollow Knight: Silksong did not win Game of the Year. I can’t imagine its creators mind all that much, though, as the hit sequel is currently outselling all of its GOTY nominees, including the game that won.
Silksong studio Team Cherry revealed exciting news on Monday – the sequel is getting an expansion, and it’s free. When sharing that news, the studio also revealed Silksong has sold seven million copies in the three months since it launched. That means it is one of the best-selling games of 2025, and is comfortably outselling the other five games that were nominated for Game of the Year.
Silksong Is Currently The Best-Selling GOTY Nominee With Seven Million Sold
Its closest rival is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the game that took home the award. The last time Sandfall Interactive provided a sales update about its debut hit, Expedition 33 had sold five million copies. It may well be closer to seven million by now, especially after getting more attention thanks to its Game Awards sweep, but right now, Silksong is officially more popular.
Not to mention Silksong launched five months after Expedition 33, so hit seven million a lot faster than Clair reached five million.
Even though Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was released at the start of the year, and is in third position on the GOTY nominees sales chart, it is three million copies behind Silksong on four million sold so far. Even Nintendo, whose first-party games often sell in the tens of millions, hasn’t been able to keep up. The last time we checked in, Donkey Kong Bananza was closing in on 3.49 million.
Fellow indie game Hades 2 has sold two million copies so far, but is tied to Nintendo Switch 2 console-wise, and bringing up the rear is Death Stranding 2 with 1.3 million copies sold. That one is the biggest outlier as its number hasn’t been updated since the end of June, mere days after it launched.
How Do Silksong s Early Sales Compare To The Original Hollow Knight?
While it’s difficult to pinpoint how Silksong’s success compares to the original Hollow Knight, it is definitely outselling it. Even though the first game had hit 15 million copies sold by the time Silksong launched, it took nine months to sell 500,000 copies, and over a year to hit the one million milestone.
The first game’s success was a slow burn, whereas Silksong’s was immediate. So immediate that multiple storefronts crashed when it launched as we all scrambled to be among the first to play it. That might mean Silksong never reaches the lofty heights its predecessor achieved, but even if it never sells another copy again, seven million sold is a huge success for almost any game, let alone an indie with a team this small.
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