After being announced six years ago, multiple delays, and years of anticipation, Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally releasing on September 4. Now, on Silksong eve, a resurfaced Reddit thread about the original Hollow Knight is a great reminder of just how far the franchise and developer Team Cherry have come in the past decade.
The thread, posted by Reddit user crazy_loop 10 years ago, includes a trailer for the original Hollow Knight prior to its release in 2017 and features a heartfelt message.
“Last year my best friend quit his full-time job to chase his dream and make a fully fledged video game,” the post reads. “Today he just released a trailer and it looks beyond amazing.”
In 2025, a new trailer for Hollow Knight: Silksong would have set the internet ablaze, but back in 2015, the response was more muted, to say the least. Many players seemed indifferent.
The most upvoted response to the post stated that the game is probably “a fine game, but the market is currently saturated with side-scrolling platformers so I feel his game may not do as good as he hopes.” Another user said the game looked fun, but they “hate to be raining on a parade” and continued that Hollow Knight looked to lack the “innovation and individuality of something like Limbo.” They continued: “probably not going to be huge.” Yet another said the game looked “cliche.”
What a difference a decade makes. There were definitely people in the Reddit thread who disagreed that the market was “saturated” with similar games and recognized that Hollow Knight could be something special. Some even expressed interest in buying it based on the trailer. Overall, however, the general consensus seemed to be that Hollow Knight looked fine, but might have a hard time finding an audience. Some said it might get a decent sales boost from appearing on Reddit’s front page.
Flash forward to now, and Hollow Knight has sold more than 15 million copies, is breaking its all-time concurrent player peak on Steam, and its sequel is such a big deal that numerous other games have announced delays in order to avoid Silksong’s release. Not bad for the sequel to a small indie game that, judging from this Reddit thread, many expected to just be another drop in the metroidvania bucket.
Despite Hollow Knight’s huge success and wild anticipation from fans, Hollow Knight: Silksong will only cost $20, $5 more than the original. Silksong will launch on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Switch 2 (with a free upgrade for Switch 2 owners). It will also be a day one Game Pass release.
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