Space simulator Kerbal Space Program has seen a resurgence as players celebrate the launch of the world’s first manned mission to the Moon, Artemis II, in decades.
The Artemis II crew are heading home after travelling further from Earth than anyone before, with a splashdown back on Earth scheduled for April 10. This mission is a giant step toward a return to the moon and future missions to Mars, and it also marks the first time humanity has flown to the Moon in over 50 years.
It has also seemingly reignited our fascination with space, with thousands of players jumping into the 11-year-old simulator game, Kerbal Space Program. While it usually bobs around on a very respectable 3-4,000 peak concurrent players on Steam, since Artemis II’s launch, SteamDB has recorded an unusually high concurrent peak of 11,390 players in the last 24 hours.
While that doesn’t quite match its launch record — that sits at 19,149 players — it’s impressive nonetheless, particularly coupled with a 732% increase in Twitch views of the game in April 2026, too, up from an average of around 96 views to 799.
The resurgence has spilled over into the game’s subreddit, too. “Was watching the live stream of Artemis with my son, he looks at me and says ‘Dad, this makes me want to play KSP!'” said one player. Another hopes the interest “sparks some renewal for another good sim game.”
“Count myself among [the returning players],” added someone else. “I was reading about the now-cancelled plans for the Lunar Gateway while looking up Artemis and thought, ‘I want to do that.’ Now I’m in career mode struggling to reliably orbit. Good times.”
Steam reviews are also referencing Artemis II. “Watching the Artemis II launch, I now have a much larger understanding of space travel because of KSP lol,” one player with over 300 hours on record, said. “To see all the concepts in the game translate somewhat to real life is amazing.”
Of course, Kerbal Space Program doesn’t exactly match what Artemis II’s astronauts are seeing and doing, but it does allow you to create your own space program, which, according to our review, offers a “deep, funny, and detailed physics sim that never takes itself too seriously.” It returned an ‘Amazing’ 9/10 in IGN’s 2015 review.
While we already knew the Artemis II crew watched Project Hail Mary before their mission, yesterday (April 6) we received another wonderful callback to the novel/film as Mission Control responded to Commander Reid Wiseman’s description of the Moon by quoting Rocky and saying, “Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!” It occurred during NASA’s official broadcast of Artemis II’s space voyage, and it happened as they were conducting their lunar flyby.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
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