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Online reaction to Hollow Knight: Silksong is broadly positive in the publicly visible numbers, and the sharpest disagreement centers on difficulty: bosses, platforming, and the walk back to a boss after dying. The enthusiasm cannot be separated from the wait. Team Cherry announced the game in 2019 and released it on September 4, 2025, so many players arrived with years of expectations already built up.
This article does not describe what “the internet” thinks, and it is not a poll of players. The headline refers to 42 people, but we could not verify the responses behind that figure: who selected them, when they were gathered, or how they were grouped. What follows is a reading of publicly reported reactions, with each claim tied to the outlet or platform that reports it.
What the headline’s numbers do and do not establish
Several figures in circulation about this game measure different things, and they should not be combined. The table separates what can be confirmed from what cannot.
| Claim | What the evidence shows | Source and date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Release date | September 4, 2025 | Team Cherry’s official release announcement; Steam store listing | Established |
| Time from public announcement to release | About six years, from the 2019 announcement to the 2025 release | Team Cherry’s announcement and release date | Arithmetic from two dates; start points vary by how “in the making” is defined |
| Development length | ABC News described the game as arriving after seven years of development | ABC News reporting | The outlet’s framing, not a verified production timeline |
| “8.5 years in the making” | No source reviewed confirms this duration | Not stated in any source reviewed | Not confirmed; treat as the headline’s framing |
| Steam review sentiment | “Very Positive,” with 93% positive among 145,722 English-language user reviews | Steam product page, as captured on October 8, 2026 | A changing platform figure, not a representative poll |
| The 42 responses | Selection, collection date, and coding method not verified | Not stated | Cannot be verified; not used as a measure |
The Steam percentage is the most solid number here, but it describes people who chose to leave English-language reviews on Steam at the time of capture. It cannot tell us why they felt the way they did, and it will move as new reviews arrive.
#1 Best Overall
![Hollow Knight: Silksong Standard - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mOgOC8xEL._SL160_.jpg)
- Discover the fallen insect kingdom of Pharloom! Explore mossy grottos, gilded cities and misted moors as you ascend to the shining citadel at the top of the world.
- Engage in lethal acrobatic action! Wield a huge suite of deadly moves as you dance between foes in swift, beautiful combat.
- Craft powerful tools! Master an ever-expanding arsenal of weapons, traps, and mechanisms to vanquish your enemies and explore new heights.
- Solve shocking quests! Hunt down rare beasts and solve ancient mysteries to grant the wishes of the downtrodden and restore the kingdom’s hope.
- Face over 200 ferocious foes! Beasts and hunters, monsters and knights. Defeat them all with bravery and skill!
Where the anticipation came from
The wait became a story in its own right. Ars Technica documented the long-running anticipation around the game and quoted Team Cherry co-founder William Pellen on how the timeline slipped:
“There was a period of two to three years when I thought it was going to come out within a year.”
Rank #2
- Hollow Knight: Silksong is the epic sequel to Hollow Knight, the award winning action-adventure.
- Journey to all-new lands, discover new powers, battle vast hordes of bugs and beasts and uncover secrets tied to your nature and your past.
That quote explains how the schedule looked from inside the studio. It does not show what fans as a whole believed. Ars Technica also preserved the question that defined the period, “Silksong when?”, a phrase that now reads as historical fan wording, since the release has answered it.
ABC News reported a second source of expectation: Silksong began as an expansion to Hollow Knight, and the scale of the story led it to become a standalone title. A game that starts as an add-on carries a different weight for players than one announced as a full sequel, and that shift in scope is part of why reactions are judged against the original.
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- Classic side-scrolling action, with all the modern trimmings.
- Tightly tuned 2D controls. Dodge, dash and slash your way through even the most deadly adversaries.
- Explore a vast interconnected world of forgotten highways, overgrown wilds and ruined cities.
- Forge your own path! The world of Hallownest is expansive and open. Choose which paths you take, which enemies you face and find your own way forward.
- Evolve with powerful new skills and abilities! Gain spells, strength and speed. Leap to new heights on ethereal wings. Dash forward in a blazing flash. Blast foes with fiery Soul!.Equip Charms! Ancient relics that offer bizarre new powers and abilities. Choose your favourites and make your journey unique!.An enormous cast of cute and creepy characters all brought to life with traditional 2D frame-by-frame animation..
Where opinions split
Reporting and community posts point to four themes. The table below shows how far the evidence goes for each.
| Discussion theme | What the reporting establishes | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Difficulty and combat | Nintendo Life reported reactions around bosses, platforming, and runbacks, and described a swift update that affected select early encounters. | How many players were affected, or which encounters drew the most complaints overall. |
| Exploration and world design | Not stated in the sources reviewed. | Any consensus. This is a useful reading lens, not a finding. |
| Expectations shaped by Hollow Knight and the wait | Ars Technica and ABC News both describe the long wait and the expansion-to-standalone change. | How widely fans held particular expectations. |
| Whether the game was worth the wait | Individual community posts reached different judgments. | Whether those judgments are typical. |
Difficulty is the clearest fault line
Of the four themes, difficulty is the one with the most concrete reporting. Nintendo Life tied post-release discussion to bosses, platforming, and runbacks, and the swift update to early encounters shows that the complaints were specific enough for the developer to respond to. The sources do not say how many players raised these points, so treat them as the issues that drew attention rather than the issues that most players hit.
Rank #4
![Hollow Knight - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nXCF+sf5L._SL160_.jpg)
- Classic side-scrolling action, with all the modern trimmings.
- Forge your own path! The world of Hallownest is expansive and open. Choose which paths you take, which enemies you face and find your own way forward.
- Evolve with powerful new skills and abilities! Gain spells, strength and speed. Leap to new heights on ethereal wings. Dash forward in a blazing flash. Blast foes with fiery Soul!
- Equip Charms! Ancient relics that offer bizarre new powers and abilities. Choose your favorites and make your journey unique!
- An enormous cast of cute and creepy characters all brought to life with traditional 2D frame-by-frame animation.
The wait changes how a hard fight feels
A challenge that reads as fair to one player can feel punishing to another, and a long anticipation raises the stakes on both sides. A player who waited years may judge the game more harshly for any friction, or more generously because the reward feels earned. The reporting here supports the existence of that tension without measuring it. A recent community thread asked, “what are your final thoughts on the game?”, and individual replies split on whether the wait had been worth it. That is useful as an example of how players phrase the question, not as evidence of how most players answered it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to read an online opinion about Silksong
- Check the date. Reactions from the launch window and reactions from a year later can differ, especially after patches.
- Check the platform and region. Steam figures cover Steam reviewers who wrote in English.
- Check the sample. A handful of posts or a thread is an anecdote, not a measure of prevalence.
- Check whether the commenter finished the game. Early impressions about bosses often differ from later ones.
- Check whether the claim is about the game or about the wait. Frustration with the timeline and frustration with the design are separate issues.
Where the evidence leaves the question
Publicly visible reactions to Hollow Knight: Silksong lean positive, and the strongest specific criticism concerns difficulty. The long gap between the 2019 announcement and the September 2025 release shaped how people arrived at the game, and it is the most reliable explanation for why reactions read as so charged. The 42-person framing, the 8.5-year figure, and any claim of what the internet as a whole thinks are not supported by the sources reviewed.
Quick Recap
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