The $5 physics co-op fishing game just outsold major launches on Steam.
A tiny indie fishing game with guns, dynamite, and fish gambling has become Steam’s unexpected weekend king. How to Fish, the debut title from Swedish studio Dazed Games, launched August 20 and sold one million copies in just two days.
Developer co-founders Carl-Vilhelm Johansson and Melvin Olsson dropped the news on the Steam page with pure energy: “WE HIT 1 MILLION FISHERMEN! THANK YOU ALL!” They followed it with the only promise players needed: more content and bug fixes are coming.
Guns, Gamble, and Chaos on the Water
How to Fish starts simple. You and up to three friends crash a boat onto a small island after a drinking session. To get home you must fish, sell your catch, upgrade gear, complete quests, and take down bosses that guard new islands.
Fishing here is not peaceful. Once you reel something in, you finish the job with knives, brass knuckles, shotguns, SMGs, or explosives. Trick shots pay extra. Rare fish variants exist. You can also gamble your catch for bigger payouts. The whole loop runs on satisfying physics that turn every session into loud, ridiculous co-op comedy.
The game sits squarely in the “friendslop” wave of cheap, absurd multiplayer titles that thrive on short clips and group laughter. Support and funding from Evil Landfall, the publishing arm tied to Peak and Content Warning developer Landfall, helped get it over the finish line.
Numbers That Turned Heads
The sales milestone landed while bigger titles were fighting for attention, including Mortal Shell 2 and the Modern Warfare 4 beta. How to Fish still climbed the charts and stayed near the top.
SteamDB tracked concurrent players peaking around 268,000 on August 23, with some reports later pushing past 340,000. Reviews sit at Overwhelmingly Positive, with roughly 94-95 percent positive across thousands of user ratings. The launch discount of 38 percent drops the price to $4.95 (from $7.99) until August 27, which clearly lowered the barrier for groups of friends.
Patches have already arrived, including an early increase of the player cap from four to eight in some updates, plus quality-of-life fixes and security improvements against griefers.
The formula is clear. Low price, instant co-op fun, physics that reward creativity, and a tone that never takes itself seriously. In a weekend full of heavyweight releases, a game about shooting fish with friends still stole the spotlight.
Players already call for more islands, weapons, and fish. Dazed Games has confirmed both content and fixes are on the way. For now, the million-copy celebration stands as one of the cleaner indie breakout stories of 2026.
AI Disclosure: This article was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools and was reviewed and edited by the Glowls News editorial team before publication.