Windrose, a pirate-themed survival game, developed by Uzbekistan’s Kraken Express Studio, generated revenue of $30mn within 10 days of release, Rutab.net has reported.

On early-access release, the video game reportedly attracted more than 10mn players as it made one of the fastest debuts ever recorded in the survival genre on Steam.

Alinea Analytics said the performance was the strongest in its category since the arrival of Palworld, a multi-player survival-crafting game developed by Pocketpair.

Rutab.net wrote that Windrose, created by just 60 developers at the studio in Tashkent “proved that big hits don't require huge budgets”.

Windrose reached peak concurrent players of more than 200,000, according to Anons.

It outpaced recent releases including Dune: Awakening and sold more than twice as fast as RuneScape: Dragonwilds, StarRupture and Grounded 2.

By mid-April, more than 1,500 users had left positive reviews on Steam, citing Windrose’s immersive pirate setting, combat mechanics and detailed water physics.

Launched on April 14, the game gained traction through a marketing campaign with content creators and a demo released during Steam Next Fest, which added nearly 474,000 users to its wishlist.

Gameplay blends open-world exploration across sea and land with base building and cooperative play for up to four players, alongside combat mechanics inspired by so-called “Souls-like” titles. This hybrid approach appears to have resonated with existing genre audiences. 

Data from Alinea Analytics indicate that 60% of Windrose players had previously engaged with Valheim, while 56% had played The Forest and 48% Palworld. Nearly 40% had also played Sea of Thieves.