Windrose is blowing up on Steam, having drawn over a million wishlists already, despite not having a release date or even an Early Access release window. So, what exactly is it?
Every so often, new, unexpected games will explode in popularity. From Content Warning to PEAK, we’ve seen countless examples of under-the-radar indie projects becoming overnight sensations. Though, typically it happens when a game is officially out, even if it’s in Early Access.
That’s not quite the case with Windrose. This game is becoming a sensation long before its full release. It’s already garnered a whopping 1 million wishlists on Steam, and that’s with just a demo.
So what is this pirate game sailing up the gaming charts? Here’s what Windrose is, and how devs have been handling the incredible early reception.
Windrose is a new PvE survival game with a swashbuckling twist
Windrose is an upcoming survival game from a new team of developers. It combines elements from a number of popular games and genres as it seamlessly merges land and sea combat.
You can be in the midst of an intense ship battle out at sea in one moment, before washing up on shore and duking it out up close with swords and guns. You can chart the seven seas alone, or with a crew of up to four online.
It includes customization for your character, your ship, and your home base, as you can recruit NPCs to help grow your settlement. Better yet, you can build and craft to improve areas, upgrade equipment, and the like.
The big twist, however, is that biomes are procedurally generated, much like say, Minecraft. Anytime you boot up the game and head out to sea, there’s no guarantee what you might come across.
While there are handcrafted dungeons and questlines to follow, they’ll take you far across land and sea in a unique way every time you hop on.
Originally, the game was called Crosswind, and it wasn’t quite the same as the survival game we see today. While it focused on PvE combat, the new, renamed version now has much more of an emphasis on survival mechanics like crafting and resource management.
Windrose devs react to hitting 1M wishlists on Steam
For now, there’s no telling when the full version of Windrose might be available. Developers only began promoting the game in March, 2025, and at the time of writing, there’s no target in mind for the launch of Early Access, let alone the eventual full release.
Despite that, the game’s demo has attracted hundreds of thousands of players. A full 1 million wishlists have been registered, a staggering feat for any independent game.
“This past week has been a real whirlwind,” devs said in a February 23 blog post on Steam. “As the spotlight grows, so do expectations. We’re working hard every day to live up to them.”
The team’s “biggest goal” is simply to “ship a great game,” they stressed, and that will take time, so they’re reminding new fans to remain patient.
To hold them over, the demo is now available and it’s packed full of content to keep you busy, even if it is just a sample of what’s to come. Better yet, by playing the demo you can earn yourself an exclusive decoration for your home base once Early Access arrives.
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