Bilawal Bashir 
Content Warning’s free launch has proven to be a massive success, with the new co-op horror game instantly becoming one of the biggest titles on Steam.
Content Warning was released April 1 and instantly became one of the top-10 games on Steam. The game hit as high as 204,439 concurrent players within its first day of release and is being watched by more than 100,000 viewers on Twitch. The game has also received 12,000 positive reviews on Valve’s digital storefront, with many praising the unique premise. Landfall Publishing launched the game for free on Steam for 12 hours, which let quick gamers grab the cooperative title with zero investment.
“Every year for April 1st aka Landfall Day we do something special, this year we’re releasing Content Warning for free,” stated Landfall Publishing.
Suffice it to say, the game is blowing up right now…but what is it?
What is Content Warning?
Content Warning is a co-op horror game where a team visits scary places, captures footage, makes it back alive, uploads it, and makes money based on what they shoot. Assuming they survive.
The premise is similar to Lethal Company, another Steam insta-hit in 2023. Instead of going to the moon and harvesting materials, the team visits a scary world to look for spooky happenings. The fun lies in discovering some manner of horrifying creature, filming it, and then escaping the world. After that, players need to upload the footage to SpookTube, become famous, and let the money roll in.
The game is very stream-friendly and as a result, it’s been doing great on Twitch as well. Just like Among Us and Apex Legends, the game has exploded to popularity through that social media presence.
Can you still get Content Warning for free?
Unfortunately, Content Warning was only free on April 1 from 9 am to 9 pm PT. The game is now available for $7.
In a Tweet, Landfall Publishing said that Content Warning has over 100,000 active players and over 4.5 million owners within the first 24 hours of release. Of course, the active player count has bloomed to twice that now. Sales figures after the free period ended are unclear, but the game is likely an unqualified success for Landfall at this point. Thanks to its enjoyable content and manageable price tag, Content Warning might become the next Helldivers 2 or Palworld.
It remains to be seen how well Content Warning does after the free purchases and the initial boom fades. So far, the game is seeing positive word of mouth on social media and Steam but the game will be looking to stick around like Fortnite, rather than fizzle like Fall Guys.
