Xbox Game Studios’ Obsidian Entertainment has had quite a busy 2025 on its hands between February’s Pillars of Eternity RPG Avowed and the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas-like The Outer Worlds 2. On top of that, there’s Grounded 2 between them — a third game from the studio this year that just launched into Early Access/Game Preview at the end of July.
The follow-up to 2020’s popular open-world survival game came as a surprise when it was unveiled during the Xbox Games Showcase in June, but excitement quickly built for it as its July launch on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, and Xbox Game Pass drew closer.
That spiking interest has culminated in an impressive start for the sequel, with Grounded 2 surpassing both the 24-hour and all-time player count peaks held by the original game on Steam and topping Steam’s Top Sellers chart for several days post-release.
Now, Grounded 2 has also passed the three million players milestone across its various platforms, with Obsidian’s executive producer Marcus Morgan revealing the news at the end of a recent developer livestream.
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It’s an achievement that dwarfs the initial performance of the first Grounded when it went into Early Access, and frankly, I’m surprised to see this many people checking out the “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” inspired title so soon, just two weeks after launch.
Undoubtedly, one of the biggest contributing factors to Grounded 2’s success out of the gate is the fact it’s available to play on both Xbox and PC through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. There are over 34 million players subscribed to Xbox Game Pass, and that membership allows fans interested in jumping into Obsidian’s work-in-progress game to do so without paying an upfront cost.
But the quality of Grounded 2 itself can’t be overlooked. Though early reviews were mixed due to performance problems on PC, the reception to the sequel as a whole has been quite positive with critics and players alike. It has about 4.5/5 stars on Xbox and a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam based on nearly 10,000 user reviews; in our own Early Access review, we called its launch “stellar.”
Though it just came out in Early Access, the follow-up title is already larger than Grounded was when it launched in full in 2022. Its Brookhollow Park map is the same size as the first game’s Backyard, but over time, it will grow to be five times larger.
On top of that, it features a wider variety of bugs to encounter, environments and biomes to explore, and buildcrafting and base-building options, along with improved lighting and graphical fidelity compared to the first game. You can even tame “Buggy” mounts like ants and spiders and ride them around, giving you a valuable ally for combat and transport.
In terms of Obsidian’s plans for future content updates, the developer recently shared an official roadmap that shows how the game will gradually progress towards its finished “1.0” state. The first major patch coming to the game will be the Fall Update that’s largely centered around a fearsome tarantula boss named AXL.
After that is the Winter Update — a larger content drop that will feature Steam Deck verification, a new ladybug Buggy mount, new bugs like crickets and earwigs, additional sets of gear to craft, the implementation of fresh and revamped mechanics like Sour and Coziness, and much more.
Then, next summer, players can look forward to a water-themed update with water bugs, the ability to make bases on bodies of water, and other additions. From there, all facets of the experience will continue to be improved in future updates, though it’s unclear when they’ll release right now.
Note that nearly all of these releases will also add a new zone to Brookhollow Park, expanding the size of the map and giving players new areas to explore. Many new creatures and materials will likely be interspersed throughout these regions, giving you good reasons to adventure outside of familiar territory.
Grounded 2 is available to play now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Steam, with Xbox Play Anywhere support enabling cross-progression between the former two platforms. You can buy it directly for $29.99, though you also have the option of using Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass.
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