TLDR:

Despite strong reception and a growing cult following, there’s no sequel in development yet—but signs point to a return someday. Here's why Bugsnax 2 might still be on the menu.

Grand Reveal of Bugsnax

From the moment I saw the trailer for Bugsnax in a State of Play leading up to the launch of the PS5 I knew that the game has something incredibly unique. As an enjoyer of creature collecting games and puzzlers, Bugsnax seemed like a wild mix of both.

While not a traditional system seller, the fact that Sony saw something special enough about this game to make it a console exclusive did get me pretty excited. All of the Bugsnax designs they showed in the initial trailer looked like highlights as well, with the game's mascot Strabby is proudly stealing the spotlight as the first shot shows a couple of Strabby playing around before we cut to one of them getting plucked up and abruptly consumed by one of the game's main characters. Once the Strabby went down the hatch, the character sprouted a strawberry-like arm...from this point on people started to sniff out the game's psychological horror potential.

What seemed like an ultra-light-hearted and cozy game seems like it could have something more interesting underneath all of the cute creatures they were showing. Bugsnax might have looked like “Pokemon, but food,” but its world was weirder, darker, and way more original. The announcement trailer garnered 1.6 million views as of the writing of this article, with early impressions from viewers being incredibly excited for the prospects of a new game from the developers of Octodad, trying their hands at a new creature collecting game.

Bugsnax Sales and Reception

By all the metrics I can look at, Bugsnax did incredibly well from the day it hit store shelves. Although official sales figures have never been disclosed, an article by publication THE GAMER cites that in the first 3 months of release, the game had already surpassed the sales of the team's highly successful previous project: Ocotdad. This doesn’t even account for the 2 months Bugsnax was free for PS+ subscribers, which likely brought in even more fans and revenue via Sony’s exclusivity deal. Young Horses, the developer of the game, did not give any dollar amounts for how much the exclusivity and PS+ deal were; the founder did say during an interview with THE GAMER that the deal was "worth it".

On top of this, the game also launched on Epic Games Store day and date with the PS5, which is where I played it, and to this day, it proudly remains the only game I have ever bought on EGS. Bugsnax did come out on Steam in April of 2022 to an all-time player peak of 1,088 and an estimated owner base of 339,000 users. I think these are pretty incredible numbers for a smaller-scale game that has already been out on other platforms for years!

The Game also reviewed generally favorable with a 75/100 on metacritic, with some of the big gaming outlets: IGN and Gamestpot coming in a bit higher at 80/100 and the most negative review I read coming from GamesBeat at 60/100.

That was a very long-winded way to say that the game reviewed and sold pretty well, so those two factors do increase the odds of a sequel by a lot.

Quick Stats

• Metacritic: 75/100
• IGN: 8/10
• Gamespot: 8/10
• Steam Owners: ~339,000
• Estimated Steam Revenue: $2,241,636 (Source: Steam Revenue Calculator)

Recent Updates

It all started again when I saw a Strabby plush on someone’s dashboard—an samll reminder that a very silly character from a game I played 4 years ago still gets me excited, and it jogged my memory about a sequel being confirmed last year. So when I went to double-check the release date that I had previously read, I realized that I too had been duped. The main source of the announcement came from a Google AI summary that confidently announced the game as Bugsnax 2: The City and also included the story summary that it sourced from training data that it got from a wiki dedicated to coming up with ideas for games.

In 2024, a Google AI summary falsely claimed Bugsnax 2: The City was coming October 15th 2024. The info was actually fan-made from a Bugsnax idea wiki. Young Horses shut the rumor down fast, tweeting: "We are not working on a Bugsnax sequel right now and I need AI BS to stop telling kids we are based on a wiki ideas fanfic." The air is clear, there is no Bugsnax game currently in development, but that is not the question this post aimed to answer. The question is whether we will ever see a sequel to one of the PS5's most original games.

My Best Guess

I think we will eventually get a sequel to Bugsnax, with the success that Young Horses saw both critically and commercially. The game has a cult following and an active community today. The developer and publisher have also had Bugsnax on the brain recently, launching Bugsnax: The Card Game along with Bugsnax VR.

I think the studio will take a break and launch a completely new original series before returning to Bugsnax. I think that is what we should all want as well. I like the art style and creative world that Young Horses created in Bugsnax and am excited to see what they build next. I do think we will see it within the next decade, though.

Bugsnax 2 Chance in the next 10 years

70 Percent