Artemis II mission sends thousands of players flooding back to 11-year-old space sim

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With the upcoming Artemis II moon mission generating a lot of buzz, a space simulator game that first launched over a decade ago is seeing a huge surge in popularity, with thousands of players returning to explore its virtual worlds.

Okay, so huge news! On April 1st, they finally launched the Artemis II spacecraft! It’s been over 50 years since anyone’s gone to the moon, and this mission is all about sending a crew of four astronauts on a trip around the moon and back. It’s basically a test run to make sure everything works perfectly for even bigger missions later on.

The recent successful launch is exciting for scientists, and it’s also given a big boost to the game Kerbal Space Programme, which has seen more players in the last decade than ever before.

Kerbal Space Programme hits best Steam player count in over a decade

Noticed by Dualshockers, the popular space simulation game Kerbal Space Program saw a surge in players on Steam just before the Artemis II launch. Player numbers jumped from a typical 3,000-4,000 throughout 2026 to around 6,000 by April 1st.

After its launch, the game quickly gained popularity, reaching 11,933 concurrent players on April 5th, according to SteamDB. This is the highest number of players the game has seen at one time since it officially released in 2015, moving out of early access.

These numbers are just from Steam, so it’s likely that player counts on PlayStation and Xbox have also increased.

Kerbal Space Program is a space simulation game that originally launched in 2011. In the game, you manage a team of little green characters called Kerbals, and you’re free to design and launch rockets to explore space, starting from their home planet, Kerbin.

The game features incredibly accurate physics, realistically simulating the challenges of launching a spacecraft and, even more so, landing it on another planet.

A sequel, Kerbal Space Program 2, is available on Steam as an early access game, but development has stalled. Layoffs at the studio, Intercept Studios, mean the game hasn’t received updates since 2024, and it hasn’t seen the same increase in popularity as the original.

Artemis II is scheduled to return to Earth on April 10th. It’s unclear whether the popular game Kerbal Space Program will see a similar boost in players, or if its current popularity will continue.

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2026-04-06 12:50