Icarus, the five-year-old survival game, has nearly reached 1 million copies sold in just three weeks.

Steam sales are always a fantastic chance to snag some great deals, and the recent Steam Winter Sale, which took place from December 18, 2025, to January 5, 2026, was no different. While many titles typically see a boost in sales and player engagement during these events, one multiplayer game experienced an extraordinary surge thanks to a massive discount. Icarus, a PvE survival game developed by New Zealand’s RocketWerkz and launched in December 2021, was slashed from its regular price of $35 to just $3.50 during the sale—an incredible 90% off.

RocketWerkz founder Dean Hall shared the impressive sales figures on X, revealing that a staggering 984,000 copies of Icarus were sold during this period. Additionally, the game’s DLC, which features two expansions and a “pets” bundle, sold another 243,000 units. Hall noted, “Over the Steam Winter Sale, Icarus sold just under a million new base game units (984k). We also did a quarter of a million DLC units (243k).”

This surge in sales also led to a significant increase in the game’s active player base. According to SteamDB, Icarus saw a remarkable spike in players throughout December 2025, reaching a peak concurrent player count of 44,120, a substantial rise from 9,076 in November. This marks the highest concurrent player count since the game’s launch in December 2021.

Dean Hall is no stranger to creating popular online experiences; he previously developed DayZ, a 2012 zombie survival game that challenged players to survive in a post-apocalyptic world filled with both the undead and other players. Originally a mod for Arma 2, it eventually became a standalone title. Steam has already announced upcoming sales events through May 2026, including the Detective Fest from January 12-19 and the Board Game Fest from January 26-February 2.