The virally successful Vampire Survivors has reached full release and is launching on PC Game Pass. The roguelike shoot 'em up originally launched in early access on December 17, 2021. Within a month it had climbed into the top 10 games on Twitch, and a year later, primary developer Luca Galante was able to begin working on Vampire Survivors full-time. That's enabled Galante to deliver a 1.0 release of Vampire Survivors as planned, packed full of new content yet still at an incredibly generous price for those without PC Game Pass.Vampire Survivors is one of the latest examples of how video game streaming can not only grant a game wild success overnight but lead to its genre rapidly expanding and innovating. In January 2022, its Twitch viewership peaked at 140,000 concurrent viewers. That success continued through June but has waned as games building on Vampire Survivors' success have been released. 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Brotato, and Rogue: Genesia are just a few examples of titles inspired by Vampire Survivors.Now there's a great reason to return to Vampire Survivors, and it's not just because it's available on PC Game Pass for the first time. Galante chose to make much of the new content a surprise, so this article won't spoil. New content that isn't a spoiler includes a new event stage, a new weapon, skins for five characters, four achievements (plus fixes for three existing achievements), support for eleven new languages, a new "Side B" soundtrack, and new game modes.
What could be Vampire Survivors' key to another wave of success is its new Twitch Mode. With Twitch Mode, streamers will be able to interact with their audience while playing. All level-up decisions will be chosen by Twitch chat, plus regular events will be triggered based on Twitch chat's choices. It's an interesting opportunity to add variety and difficulty to a Twitch streamer's Vampire Survivors runs.
This isn't the end of Vampire Survivors' new content, either. Galante explains in a letter to their community that they'll only be done with Vampire Survivors "once I - or you - get tired of it." The only clue Galante is willing to offer is that some "brand new features" are currently in the works. Further, Galante and their team might be working on a new game, too.
In addition to Vampire Survivors' new content, it'll also be available to an entirely new audience. Vampire Survivors can be played as part of the PC Game Pass subscription service starting today. It can still be purchased through Steam for just $4.99 (discounted to $3.99 until October 27), too. For those interested in trying out the popular new genre of survival shoot 'em ups, Vampire Survivors' 1.0 launch has made it more accessible than ever.
Vampire Survivors is available now on PC.