Here's why an $8 game is taking over Steam

It feels like every couple of months, some smaller, indie title blows up on Steam and Twitch. In recent history, these have been primarily co-op games that feature proximity chat, like R.E.P.O.. While the exact starting point of the trend seems to be Phasmophobia, other games like Content Warning and Schedule I have also blown up. A new game in this trend has arrived, Peak, which takes the proximity chat and simple but somewhat punishing gameplay formula from the other titles, but does it without relying on the horror genre. The result has been a game that is a huge hit, in large part thanks to the smart design choices that the developers, Aggro Crab and Landfall made.

What kind of game is Peak anyway?

Peak is a co-op climbing game

Peak is an $8 game on Steam where you and up to three friends need to climb up a mountain. In order to reach the top, you will need to work together and use tools to reach the top. The game features proximity chat, where your voice is projected out of your character, so if someone is far away, they can't hear you very well. The main mechanic in Peak, however, is the stamina meter. You can think of it sort of like the Breath of the Wild stamina meter for climbing, but the meter gets reduced constantly. If you get hungry, the meter shrinks. Get injured, and the meter shrinks. This makes each climb harder and harder as you go along, possibly resulting in a failed climb. One other key element here is that the mountain is procedurally generated each day. Everyone gets the same mountain, and there is more to discover after reaching the peak, but this allows for each session to feel a bit different.

Peak's massive success

Huge sales and Steam concurrents

If you want to know just how successful Peak is, we have a ton of numbers showing off both sales and engagement for the small, indie project. As of July 8, Peak has sold over 4.5 million copies on Steam (via GameDiscoverCo), less than a month after its June 16 launch. That's a ridiculous amount of copies, and yes, it's only $8 and not $70, but that shouldn't take away from the ridiculous amount of sales Peak has had. It had also reached a peak of 113,552 concurrent players (via SteamCharts) which, again, is a huge amount of players, $8 or otherwise. For reference, FragPunk, a free-to-play shooter from NetEase, achieved nearly identical concurrent numbers, but without a monetary barrier. While Twitch viewer peaks aren't tracked by Twitch, at the time of writing Peak has over 50,000 viewers on Twitch, an impressive stat among impressive stats.

Why Peak is having a moment in gaming

Proximity chat seems to be the new magic for smaller co-op games

The massive success of Peak isn't that surprising if you have been paying attention to which indie games are blowing up on Steam. As mentioned earlier, co-op proximity chat games have been having a moment for a few years, and Peak built upon that success. While Phasmophobia seems like the catalyst for these games, recent hits like Content Warning, R.E.P.O., and Schedule I have all been similarly successful, building upon the funny, chaotic moments that come from a co-op experience. Many of these hits have also seen success on Twitch, as content creators play the games together, but because the fun comes from the chaos of playing with friends, that sort of experience can be had by people who aren't streaming, leading to these games selling a ton of copies. What makes Peak different is that it has managed to lose the horror genre that is directly tied to this style of game, which will likely lead to even more genres being represented in future co-op proximity chat.

It's only a matter of time before something new comes along

Peak is a success regardless of how many people are playing six months from now

Peak is the game of the moment, and like previous games of the moment, a large chunk of the player base will eventually move on to something new. That doesn't mean the player base will be dead by any means. For example, R.E.P.O. has lost more than 75% of the players it had at its peak, but it still has over 40,000 people playing regularly. Peak doesn't have microtransactions nor does it have matchmaking, so a thriving player base six months after launch doesn't really matter, although you can guarantee that someone will write an article about how it lost a big chunk of its players a few months from now.

Peak is an undeniable success, especially for indie games

A huge win for the studios involved

Peak is an obvious success, but it's also likely to provide a nice boost to both studios involved. This smaller project comes from Aggro Crab and Landfall, two indie studios you might be familiar with. Aggro Crab recently made Another Crab's Treasure and Landfall made Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. Both studios are successful, but this breakout hit will likely provide a nice boost of income and notoriety, which can be useful for future games. For now, if you have any interest in a silly physics-based climbing game, grab three friends with $8 and try and reach the Peak.