Sadly, most of us won't ever come close to being astronauts, leaving us to live vicariously through the incredible work of crews such as those involved in the Artemis II from NASA. In that spirit, plenty of people have booted up Kerbal Space Program to enjoy some astro-exploration of their own, setting a record for the spaceflight sim.
Since the Artemis II's launch on April 1, there's been a steady uptick in players of Kerbal Space Program, as can be seen on SteamCharts. In fact, the influx starts just before, on March 29, when over 5,600 people decided to start putting together their own shuttle launches in the name of exploring the stars above.
Then, as NASA's latest venture to the moon took flight, the numbers started to skyrocket, pun intended. It was 10,407 by April 4; 11,712 by April 5; and 12,306 by April 8. Then, eventually, the game made it into another frontier entirely.
On April 12, 20,875 concurrent players were recorded for Kerbal Space Program, comfortably marking a new benchmark for the longstanding space-launch simulator. It helps a conveniently timed discount in the spring Steam sale brought the release right down to £2.99 in the backhalf of March, letting savvy space fans get it for cheap.
If you're wondering how this lines up with the sequel, well, there have been mothballs for Kerbal Space Program 2, I'm afraid. Just over 500 concurrent players is the most recent peak, according to SteamCharts. The follow-up, still in early access, is sitting on Mostly Negative reviews, hence players haven't all made the jump over just yet.
For Artemis II, and NASA's missions for the foreseeable future, it'll be the OG that lets us take a giant for mankind of our own. That said, I'd wager a successful launch in Kerbal Space Program isn't all that much easier than the real thing, when we get down to brass tax.
