Classic browser game Happy Wheels has been listed on Steam and, within two weeks, has amassed 750,000 wishlists against the creator’s expectation of only 5,000.
The physics-based browser classic Happy Wheels launched in 2010 and has been playable online for free since then. Creator Jim Bonacci described the game as “floating on an isolated island in space.”
However, it has recently launched as a paid game on Steam. In terms of Steam wishlists, Bonacci said he had expected “maybe 5k at best”, but the number far exceeded that.
It hit 750k in two weeks
In his official Steam launch announcement, Bonacci shared that the number of wishlists was at 750,000. He stated that it’s a game that needs a community to function, and was thankful to the fans that have proven it will continue to have one.
“As a 20+ year Steam connoisseur and a game developer with zero contacts in the industry, it’s both shocking and supremely welcoming to get this type of reception in the form of this absurd number two weeks after adding it to the store”, he wrote.
The game costs $4.99 and adds features not available in the browser version, including controller support, Steam achievements, and no advertisements. Players will also be able to access more than five million community-created levels.
As of writing, Happy Wheels has almost 2,000 reviews on Steam, with 95% of them being positive. The game had a 3,193-player concurrent peak on launch day.
For more on Steam, check out our coverage of the Steam game that shuts mods off after malware hijacked accounts and sent slurs to players’ friends, or the Needle In A Haystack Simulator dev’s apology to Steam for the flood of rip-offs his game inspired.
