Slay the Spire 2’s player count is 10 times higher than its predecessor’s—and it’s on the verge of beating Silksong, too

Whether or not you believe in divine providence, the sudden upsurge of indie games seems to me as if some higher power decided that enough was enough and gave us all of these amazing, passionate developers who strive only to create art and to stick it to the man, whether on purpose or not.

And Slay the Spire 2 is one of those games, an indie title that came seemingly out of nowhere, building on top of its predecessor’s positive legacy and ending up 10x-ing its peak player count, proving that all you need to do is make a good game, and it’ll find a massive audience. Compared to STS1‘s peak player count of 57,025, Slay the Spire 2 has hit 574,638 over the weekend, a number that’d be the pride and joy of a billion-dollar corporate giant, let alone a small indie team.

The deckbuilding roguelike is also closing in on another indie sensation, Hollow Knight: Silksong, itself peaking at 587,150 and even crashing Steam at launch. Odds are that Slay the Spire 2 will be able to beat it out, though it has already been tallied among the top 20 most-played Steam games of all time.

The game opened to 177,000 concurrent players during the initial hours of its launch, sharply climbing to over 400,000 only a day later. This meteoric rise could keep going, though the curve has started plateauing a bit, unless it resurges by the evening.

STS2 has a 96 percent positive rating on Steam out of 24,500 reviews, almost tied with the previous game’s 97 percent. Of course, it’s still too early to draw conclusions for user reviews, but it’s nonetheless safe to say that this game is being overwhelmingly well-received by fans and newcomers alike.

Indie games have become the golden standard of quality experiences as the AAA industry continues to release failure after failure, often spending incredible amounts of money only to shut its games down not long after launch. A recent example of a huge, experienced, corporate-backed title completely missing the mark would be Highguard, a game that is set to be permanently shuttered in only four days as of this article.

Previously, we had Warner Brothers losing hundreds of millions of dollars on failed gaming projects, sinking so much money that it slowly but surely scaled back its gaming enterprise. Concord was another massive catastrophe and probably one of Sony’s biggest fumbles to date, while Sony-backed Marathon is also being attacked for failing to captivate a broader audience, despite solid launch numbers.

Whichever way you cut it, indies are the ultimate kings of video games in 2026. Numbers like these were unfathomable just a few years ago, but nowadays are so common that it’s not even newsworthy anymore. And that’s a good thing, because art should be rewarded and passionate developers given the attention and funds they deserve to continue enriching global culture with their amazing creative works.

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The Parasitism 5 contract is a priority task to complete for the Sekiguchi faction in Marathon, and it’s a collection of three different activities.

Parasitism 5 is the final contract in the series, and this guide will help you complete all three tasks.

Marathon Parasitism 5 contract walkthrough

The Parasitism 5 contract can be broken down into three tasks.

• Extract biotic sample from Sparkleaf in Bio-Research
• Synthesize SIMbiont in Quarantine and inject yourself
• Allow the SIMbiont to integrate with your shell; then exfil

How to extract biotic sample from Sparkleaf in Bio-Research

For the first task, head to the Bio-Research location in the northern area of the map. You’ll first need to pick up Sparkleaf that can grow among vegetation.

They don’t have a specific location, but they’re fairly common. Once you find a Sparkleaf, head to the marked location in the image below.

You’ll find an extraction machine to extract a biotic sample from the Sparkleaf (place it in its inventory and then wait for a few seconds).

How to synthesize SIMbiont in Quarantine and inject yourself

Pick up the sample and head to the southwest part of the map, where you’ll find the Quarantine POI. I have marked the location where you’ll find a small room with the terminal inside (will be highlighted by a quest marker when you’re at the marked spot).

Access the Synthesizer and place the sample to get the SIMbiont. Inject yourself with the item and then wait for 1 minute and 30 seconds. You’ll need to survive a UESC onslaught as the SIMbiont integrates with your shell. Once you manage to survive the 90 seconds, safely exfil from the map, and you’ll complete the final Parasitism contract in Marathon.

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