Build a base with friends on an alien planet.
Is it just me or do we ring in each new gaming year with a smash-hit co-op game, usually one that’s pretty reasonably priced?
- 2025: REPO (February): 271,571 concurrent players
- 2024: Palworld (January): 2,101,867 concurrents
- 2023: Sons of the Forest (February): 414,257 concurrents
- 2022: *crickets*
- 2021: Valheim (February): 502,387 concurrents
Admittedly I couldn’t really find something that fits for 2022. (Lost Ark blew up huge in February 2022 to the tune of 1,325,305 concurrent players, but it’s a free-to-play MMO so that feels like cheating.) Still, the trend is mostly true: early in the year there’s almost always some big co-op hit that busts the doors off Steam.
These games are usually pretty inexpensive, especially in comparison to the eye-watering $70 price tags of some games these days, and they’re often early access, survival-ish, basebuilder-y games. I hereby declare this an official trend and an annual tradition.
I’m bringing this up because, wouldn’t you know it? StarRupture, the co-op sci-fi basebuilder from Creepy Jar, makers of the excellent Green Hell, is out in early access on January 6. And for me, it fits the bill for a potential early-year co-op smash.
First, it’s pretty darn cheap: StarRupture’s base price is a mere $20, and there’s a launch discount of 20% so you can jump in for just $16. I feel like the pricing floor has risen right along with the ceiling, so games that would have been $20 a couple of years ago are now going for $30. That makes this a nice and welcome surprise for a new game, even one in early access.
Second, it’s got a lot of what co-op players love, like building bases with friends and getting chased by weird monsters (in this case, alien bugs). And for the Satisfactory crowd, there’s huge supply chains to set up and manage, and automated factories to construct and upgrade.
Watch On
I’ve only just dipped in to the early hours of StarRupture myself, but it’s got a lot going for it: a big map with a whole buncha weird-looking stuff off in the distance that makes me want to explore, a pretty engaging tutorial that only hints at what’s possible with survival and crafting, and an alien star in the sky that I can only assume, at some point, is going to rupture. I haven’t played enough yet to recommend it, but I’m definitely going back in for more this week.
Will this be the big co-op hit that always (fine, almost always) rings in the new year? We’ll find out soon: StarRupture launches on Steam in less than a day.
