Uzbekistan Studio’s Windrose Sinks Pragmata in Weekly Steam Charts
The week ending April 21 brought a massive surprise to the global Steam charts. While industry analysts anticipated that Capcom’s highly awaited sci-fi shooter Pragmata would comfortably dominate the market, an early access pirate survival game named Windrose completely stole the spotlight, Games.gg reports.
The Rise of a New Pirate Adventure
Developed by Kraken Express, a studio founded in Uzbekistan, Windrose launched into early access on April 14 with barely any pre-release marketing. Despite the incredibly short runway between its announcement and release, the cooperative title shifted a staggering one million copies in just six days.
Peaking at 222,134 concurrent players, the $26.99 PC exclusive has become a runaway success. It seems to have perfectly filled a long-standing gap in the market, appealing to a dedicated survival fanbase that was left wanting by previous genre entries.
While Sea of Thieves carved out a loyal community, it never fully satisfied hardcore survival enthusiasts, whilst the recent Skull & Bones launched to widespread disappointment. Windrose stepped right into this void with robust mechanics and an eager audience waiting for a game to click.
Contextualising Pragmata’s performance
This unexpected indie surge meant Capcom’s brand-new intellectual property had to settle for second place in the premium rankings. Pragmata debuted with a highly respectable 68,689 peak concurrent players on Steam.
However, the narrative of «losing to pirates» misses the broader picture. As a $59.99 single-player experience that launched simultaneously on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, the PC metrics for Pragmata represent only a slice of its total audience. For a premium solo adventure, these numbers remain solid.
Notable movers and indie triumphs
The top three premium games were rounded out by Mouse: P.I. For Hire. The $29.99 noir indie shooter starring Troy Baker put up an impressive fight against much larger productions, peaking at 13,755 concurrent players.
- Elsewhere in the paid charts, several other titles made notable waves:
- Crimson Desert dropped to fourth place after enjoying nearly a month at the summit.
- Forza Horizon 6 secured fifth position on the back of strong momentum, having already surpassed 500,000 pre-orders.
- Replaced, a newly launched action-platformer, debuted at number ten with a peak concurrent player count of 5,352 and a 79 per cent positive user rating.
When factoring in free-to-play titles, Valve’s ubiquitous Counter-Strike 2 maintained its iron grip on the number one revenue spot. It led a broader global chart that included massive live-service hits like PUBG, Overwatch, Apex Legends, Marvel Rivals and Warframe.
Top 10 premium Steam sellers (April 14–21)
- Windrose
- Pragmata
- Mouse: P.I. For Hire
- Crimson Desert
- Forza Horizon 6
- Slay the Spire 2
- EA Sports FC 26
- Ready or Not
- Rust
- Replaced
