There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of the game that’s currently blowing up the Steam charts. BattleBit Remastered, released in early access today, is a 254-player FPS that looks like Roblox but plays like Battlefield. At just $15, currently the best-selling paid game on Steam, sitting right behind CS:GO on the global top seller list. Unsurprisingly, it’s also in the top ten most-played games right now.
BattleBit’s top spot is impressive given its low price and the fact that Steam ranks top sellers by revenue, not copies sold. That means BattleBit is currently making more money than Warzone 2, Starfield, PUBG, and the Steam Deck. Not bad for the four-person team at OkiGames, who’s been working on BattleBit in various forms for seven years.
After playing an hour of BattleBit, it’s easy to see why it’s an instant success. It’s a remarkably fun little FPS that’s a lot deeper than it looks. It’s got the scale, vehicles, and destruction of a modern Battlefield game, but a lot of milsim qualities from Squad are in there too: proximity chat, buildable defensive structures, bleeds that have to be bandaged, and medic class who has the exclusive ability to heal players. It’s very accessible to just hop in and play, but harder core than most multiplayer shooters.
Maybe the most impressive thing about BattleBit so far is that it just works. Aside from a few server resets to accommodate the over 28,000 people currently trying to play it, it’s been a relatively smooth launch. Movement is snappy and the shooting is responsive and fun (though the guns sound a little weak). The maps are also gigantic—so big that even with 254 players running around there’s plenty of room to break off from a fight and flank.
BattleBit product manager Twelve told me that it’s the game’s lo-fi look (alongside the tireless programming of lead developer Oki) that makes its huge scale possible, and with hilariously low system requirements as a bonus:
Minimum
OS: Windows 10 (x64) – Windows 11 (x64)Processor: Intel Core i5-2310Memory: 6 GB RAMGraphics: Geforce GTS 450 or equivalent or betterDirectX: Version 11Storage: 2 GB available space
Recommended
OS: Windows 10 (x64) – Windows 11 (x64)Processor: Intel Core i5 4th Generation and aboveMemory: 8 GB RAMGraphics: Geforce GTX 600 Series or equivalent or betterDirectX: Version 11Storage: 2 GB available space
Basically, BattleBit will run on your toaster. It’s not as pretty as the big boys, but it plays great, and I reckon the low barrier to entry will work for OkiGames in the long run.