Grounded 2 is out in early access, and players are already swarming to see everything developer Obsidian Entertainment has planned for the future.
The sequel to the studio’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids-inspired video game launched into its early access period on Steam and Xbox Series X | S yesterday, introducing a backyard full of ideas and additions to the formula established with the original Grounded in 2022. As Obsidian plots out its future, players are showing up in droves to see what makes Grounded 2 tick.
Nearly 50,000 players signed on to play Grounded 2 when it reached its Steam player peak yesterday (via SteamDB). It’s a milestone that already towers above the 32,000-player peak the original Grounded reached during its early access run in July 2021. With a little more than 45,000 players actively playing the sequel at the time of this story’s publication, it seems there’s plenty of room to grow.
Obsidian is already planting seeds for the next few phases of Grounded 2, too. The team published an early access roadmap to coincide with its launch across PC and consoles, spelling out at least one year of updates with more in the pipeline for the future.
Highlights in the fall plans include AXL Recipes and AXL’s Arena for Brookhollow Park. Armor, weapons, and a Park Boss creature are also said to show up around this time as Obsidian pads out Grounded 2 with various quality-of-life improvements. Winter will then bring Steam Deck verification and ROG Ally support as well as Cricket and Earwig creatures, variants of other existing insects, a Ladybug Buggy, and more.
Obsidian doesn’t share exactly how it plans to fill the spring with more content for Grounded 2 but says summer will include ziplines, smoothies, and swimming improvements as well as Watery Creatures and Buggies. It means players can expect plenty of additions to roll out in the months ahead, but there’s so much more set to arrive at an unspecified point in the future, too. Highlights include Passive Mutations and Active Mutations 2.0, more creatures and Park Bosses, more armors, additional building materials, and a few secrets the team isn’t willing to share quite yet.
While we wait to see how Obsidian is planning to build upon Grounded 2’s early access foundation, you can see why the studio chose to dig into a sequel in the first place. You can also check out our 8/10 early access review.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
