How to Fish Surpasses 20,000 Concurrent Players on Steam
The game's immediate popularity, with over 20,000 concurrent players and a 96% positive review rate, suggests that its blend of fishing with gunplay and party-game chaos is resonating with a broad Steam audience, a notable success for a small indie studio.
Key Facts
- How to Fish launched on Steam on August 20, 2026, for PC.
- The game surpassed 20,000 concurrent players shortly after release, according to SteamDB.
- Steam user reviews are Overwhelmingly Positive, with 96% of about 780 reviews positive.
- How to Fish is on sale for 545 yen, 38% off the regular 880 yen price, until August 28.
- The game supports up to four-player online co-op and includes firearms, gambling, and trick shots.
Reporting from 3 sources: Denfaminicogamer, Automaton, Game Spark.
Dazed Games released the co-op fishing simulator How to Fish on Steam on August 20, and the game has already drawn a large audience. According to SteamDB, the title surpassed 20,000 concurrent players shortly after launch, and at the time of writing it holds an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam, with 96% of roughly 780 user reviews positive. How to Fish is a physics-based, first-person fishing simulation that supports single-player and online co-op for up to four players. The premise has the player washed ashore on a small island after a boating accident while drinking, and they must earn money by catching and selling fish to buy better gear and weapons. The game's hook is that fishing is not limited to rods: players can use knives, handguns, shotguns, submachine guns, and sniper rifles to take down fish, and can also cook catches on a grill, gamble with fish as capital, and perform acrobatic trick shots for bonus money. Co-op adds chaos, with seagulls stealing prey and players accidentally shooting each other. The game is available for PC on Steam, and a launch sale offers it at 545 yen, 38% off the regular 880 yen price, until August 28.
Dazed Games is a Sweden-based indie studio co-founded by Melvin Olsson and Carl-Vilhelm Johansson. The pair previously released Out of Hand: Deluxe, a party game for up to eight players.
The developer has been posting the development process on its official X account, showing elements added one by one: grilling fish, melee attacks, seagull theft, and a growing arsenal of firearms. Denfaminicogamer notes the game's weapon list goes beyond the guns the summary covered, adding brass knuckles and dynamite to the rod alternatives.
The game supports Japanese display and Japanese voice, per the Steam store page. Characters can be customized to the player's preferred appearance. Clearing quests and defeating bosses unlocks new islands, and the further a player advances, the more dangerous the creatures and the better the obtainable equipment become.
Fish come in multiple types and rarity levels, with a collection element tied to catching them all. Co-op adds its own hazards beyond friendly fire: players can be grabbed by birds and carried into the air, and companions may run off to the casino mid-boss-fight. Automaton describes the result as a party game where chaotic backstabbing with like-minded companions is as much the point as escaping the island.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 3 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.