Silksong’s Record-Breaking Launch Draws Applause from Hololive’s CEO

Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hololive CEO Motoaki “YAGOO” Tanigo

Hollow Knight: Silksong has made a thunderous debut, smashing records across Steam and Twitch while drawing praise from one of the most recognizable figures in the VTuber industry — Hololive CEO Motoaki “YAGOO” Tanigo.

The long-awaited sequel from indie studio Team Cherry has quickly cemented itself as one of 2025’s biggest gaming launches. According to SteamDB, Silksong peaked at over 500,000 concurrent players on Steam within its first day, briefly crashing digital storefronts due to the sheer volume of purchases. On Twitch, it shot straight to the top of the charts, attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers and becoming the most-watched game on launch day. Within 24 hours, more than 48,000 user reviews had been posted on Steam — the vast majority marked “Overwhelmingly Positive.”

In a LinkedIn post, YAGOO reflected on Team Cherry’s journey, recalling how the original Hollow Knight trailer was met with skepticism when it first appeared on Reddit. “They received many negative comments predicting the game would be an obvious failure,” he wrote. “Hollow Knight has since sold more than 15 million copies, becoming one of the most successful indie games ever.”

He pointed to Silksong’s record-breaking launch as proof of what persistence and belief in a vision can achieve: “They had a dream and a vision. While listening to all feedback, negative and positive, they believed in their project and made it a reality, achieving even more than they could have ever dreamed.”

YAGOO also noted that Hololive talents are already streaming Silksong on YouTube, drawing a parallel to his own company’s growth. “For us at COVER, we might be in our ‘Hollow Knight’ era compared to our beginnings, but look forward to our ‘Silksong’ one.”