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Free 2020 anime game blows up on Steam again for no obvious reason

Helltaker, a free anime puzzle game from 2020 with Skullgirls and The Binding of Isaac style visuals, has just rocketed up Steam's charts.

Sometimes a game just seems to blow up out of nowhere. This is the case with Helltaker, a free Sokoban style puzzle game whose visuals call to mind hits like Skullgirls and The Binding of Isaac, and which originally came out all the way back in 2020. Nearly four years to the date of its original launch, Helltaker is rocketing up the Steam charts once again, becoming one of the most played games on Valve’s platform.

Helltaker is a free indie puzzle game that plays out as a spin on the block pushing Sokoban genre. The player is required to navigate a top down view of a cartoonish chamber in hell by punching away boulders and skeletons in as few turns as possible on their way to collect treasures. All of this is presented within the framework of a lighthearted visual novel, which is enough of a focus that Helltaker’s Steam description even highlights the ability to skip all the puzzles included to concentrate on the story instead.

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As of the time of writing, Helltaker is enjoying a massive resurgence on Steam. It currently has 3,777 players in game and reached a 24 hour peak of 3,806 players earlier today, Monday April 8 2024. This is lower than its all time peak of 6,509 players, but still a massive spike.

Free 2020 anime game is blowing up on Steam for no obvious reason: A screenshot of Helltaker's Steam stats.

Why, exactly, Helltaker is blowing up again now, we don’t know, but it being free — and enjoying an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam — is likely helping it to spread. If you want to check out Helltaker for yourself, grab a free copy on Steam right here.

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