How to Fish Sold 1 Million Copies in 2 Days, and Steam Cannot Stop Playing It

A tiny co-op fishing game from a two-person Swedish studio has become one of Steam's biggest surprise hits of 2026. How to Fish sold one million copies in just two days, climbed past 373,000 concurrent players, and somehow turned fishing into one of the most chaotic multiplayer games on Steam.

How to Fish starts simply. You crash on an island and need to find your way home.

So you fish.

Then you get guns.

Released on August 20 by Swedish indie studio Dazed Games, the game lets up to four players catch fish, sell them, buy better equipment, fight bosses and travel to increasingly dangerous islands. Steam's official description sums it up perfectly:

“Fish fish, kill fish, sell fish.”

Watch the Trailer

The game gets ridiculous very quickly. Players can upgrade weapons and armour, hunt rare fish, gamble their catches and even throw fish into the air before trying to shoot them for trick-shot bonuses.

Yes, you can basically no-scope a fish with a sniper rifle.

Then It Exploded

Dazed Games announced that How to Fish sold one million copies within two days.

Within five days, it reached an all-time Steam peak of 373,971 concurrent players.

That is an enormous number for an indie game built by such a small team.

Players seem to genuinely like it too. The game currently holds an Overwhelmingly Positive Steam rating, with around 95% of English-language reviews positive.

One Steam review probably explains the entire game better than anything else:

“Fishing, gambling and guns. Everything a man could ever want.”

Another simply called it:

“Game Of The Year.”

Why Is It So Popular?

How to Fish fits perfectly into the recent wave of cheap multiplayer games designed around having fun with friends rather than learning complicated systems.

There is almost no barrier to entry.

Join the lobby. Catch something. Throw it. Shoot it. Laugh when everything goes wrong.

The game also launched at an introductory price of just $4.95, making it easy for entire friend groups to jump in together.

That simple formula has worked incredibly well for games like PEAK and Content Warning, and How to Fish may be the latest example of just how powerful these small co-op games can become.

Two Developers, One Million Sales

The craziest part is the team behind it.

Dazed Games is a small Swedish studio led by Carl-Vilhelm Johansson and Melvin Olsson, and the game was self-published.

No giant publisher. No massive marketing campaign.

Just a cheap co-op game where you can catch a fish, throw it into the air and shoot it with a gun.

Now more than a million people own it.

Dazed Games has already confirmed that more content is coming, along with bug fixes and updates.

At this point, How to Fish is no longer just a strange viral game.

It is one of 2026's biggest indie breakouts.