Hollow Knight, eight years after its release, is a pretty beloved game. That love was clearly reflected in the rabid audience anticipation for Hollow Knight: Silksong, and the fact that, in its history, it has received less than 14,000 negative reviews on Steam, compared to almost 440,000 positive ones.

With an influx of players now jumping into the indie classic, following the release of Silksong, there might be a tiny bit of a re-evaluation. In the first ten days of September, Hollow Knight has received more negative reviews than in any other month in its history.

Hollow Knight Reviews Are Flying In, And For The First Time, They're Not Overwhelmingly Positive

In the first ten days of September, Hollow Knight received 660 negative reviews, according to SteamDB. While this number may seem paltry, it is the highest it has ever been in a single month, and we're only a third of the way through. It set the bar last month with 378 negative reviews, and before that, the most it had ever received in a single month was in January 2025, with 340 negative reviews.

The game's overall review score still stands at a deserved "Overwhelmingly Positive" on Steam, but its recent reviews have shifted to "Very Positive", perhaps for the first time.

It should be noted that, in general, Hollow Knight is receiving significantly more Steam reviews than usual, and there have also been more positive reviews than in any other month, but the ratios just aren't as favorable as they've historically been. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that more players are playing it than ever before, despite the release of Silksong. Almost every day between August 23 and September 2, the game broke its own concurrent player count record, reaching a peak of 95,655 players on September 7.

While Hollow Knight's negative reviews are slightly disproportionately worse now than they have been in their history, they pale in comparison to the start that Silksong has had. Although still "Very Positive" on the platform, the game has had more than double the negative reviews Hollow Knight has received in its entire lifetime. This is partly due to poor Chinese translation, which Team Cherry has stated it will rectify, and partly due to the game's perceived higher difficulty, something which the developers will be addressing in an upcoming patch.

There's no need to sound the alarms with Hollow Knight; it's still an absolute all-timer. It's just interesting to see that the ratio of negative to positive reviews has slightly changed in the wake of its sequel.

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Hollow Knight

Metroidvania Systems 10.0/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 90/100 Critics Rec: 99% Released February 24, 2017 ESRB E10+ for Everyone 10+: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood Developer(s) Team Cherry Publisher(s) Team Cherry Engine Unity
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