Space simulator Kerbal Space Program has seen a resurgence as gamers have fun the launch of the world’s first manned mission to the Moon, Artemis II, in many years.
The Artemis II crew are heading house after travelling farther from Earth than anybody earlier than, with a splashdown again on Earth scheduled for April 10. This mission is a big step towards a return to the moon and future missions to Mars, and it additionally marks the primary time humanity has flown to the Moon in over 50 years.
It has additionally seemingly reignited our fascination with area, with hundreds of gamers leaping into the 11-year-old simulator sport, Kerbal Space Program. Whereas it normally bobs round on a really respectable 3-4,000 peak concurrent gamers on Steam, since Artemis II’s launch, SteamDB has recorded an unusually excessive concurrent peak of 11,390 gamers within the final 24 hours.
Whereas that does not fairly match its launch file — that sits at 19,149 gamers — it is spectacular nonetheless, significantly coupled with a 732% increase in Twitch views of the game in April 2026, too, up from a median of round 96 views to 799.
The resurgence has spilled over into the sport’s subreddit, too. “Was watching the dwell stream of Artemis with my son, he seems to be at me and says ‘Dad, this makes me need to play KSP!'” said one participant. Another hopes the curiosity “sparks some renewal for one more good sim sport.”
“Depend myself amongst [the returning players],” added another person. “I used to be studying in regards to the now-cancelled plans for the Lunar Gateway whereas trying up Artemis and thought, ‘I need to do this.’ Now I am in profession mode struggling to reliably orbit. Good instances.”
Steam evaluations are additionally referencing Artemis II. “Watching the Artemis II launch, I now have a a lot bigger understanding of area journey due to KSP lol,” one participant with over 300 hours on file, stated. “To see all of the ideas within the sport translate considerably to actual life is wonderful.”
In fact, Kerbal Space Program would not precisely match what Artemis II’s astronauts are seeing and doing, however it does assist you to create your personal area program, which, in line with our evaluation, affords a “deep, humorous, and detailed physics sim that by no means takes itself too critically.” It returned an ‘Wonderful’ 9/10 in IGN’s 2015 evaluation.
Whereas we already knew the Artemis II crew watched Challenge Hail Mary earlier than their mission, yesterday (April 6) we acquired one other great callback to the novel/movie as Mission Management responded to Commander Reid Wiseman’s description of the Moon by quoting Rocky and saying, “Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!” It occurred throughout NASA’s official broadcast of Artemis II’s space voyage, and it occurred as they had been conducting their lunar flyby.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years expertise working with among the world’s largest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.