Did We All Just Get Good? Silksong's Stats Tell a Different Story About Its 'Impossible' Difficulty
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Despite initial complaints of extreme difficulty, surprising achievement stats reveal that *Hollow Knight: Silksong* players are progressing significantly well, even outperforming *Hollow Knight*'s early progression, proving player resilience often outshines online 'discourse.'
Right, so remember last week? The internet was ablaze, mate, with the sound of collective wailing and gnashing of teeth. The 'Discourse,' as the kids call it, was all about how *Hollow Knight: Silksong* had landed, and it was apparently a brutally impossible, soul-crushingly difficult beast of a game. Like, even more so than its predecessor, which, fair dinkum, was already no walk in the park.
Everyone was sharing their tales of woe, their hours spent bashing their heads against boss walls, wondering if Team Cherry had somehow slipped a rogue 'Git Gud' spell into the game's code. You'd think, wouldn't you, that with all that chatter, most players would still be stuck somewhere in the tutorial, weeping into their keyboards? Well, prepare to have your preconceived notions about online gamer complaints utterly shattered, because apparently, we're all a bunch of quiet overachievers.
I've been tinkering with this story all morning, and bloody hell, the stats are wilder than they first appeared. As reported by Polygon, diving into the publicly available achievement data from Steam and PSN, it seems a surprising number of players are actually... *progressing* through Silksong. And not just a little bit. We're talking significant chunks of the player base clearing early bosses like it's a casual Sunday stroll.
On Steam, for instance, a whopping 87% of players have already bested the first real boss, the Bell Beast. And over on PSN, it’s a similar story with an 83% clear rate. Now, let that sink in for a moment. Contrast that with the original *Hollow Knight* at a similar stage in its life: 71% on Steam and a mere 59% on PSN. Now, granted, *Hollow Knight* has been out for almost a decade and shifted 15 million copies, so the player base has obviously evolved. And yeah, Silksong's numbers will probably shift over the years too. But still, for a game that’s only just landed, and with all the 'it's too hard!' noise, those are some seriously impressive figures.
What's even more fascinating is that players aren't just getting past the first hurdle. Take Widow, a boss that only shows up after you've navigated multiple areas and defeated several other baddies. She's been cleared by 46% of Steam players! That's nearly half of everyone who's picked up the game, getting deep into its challenging heart. And they're often doing it with what I'd call self-imposed handicaps. Less than half of all players have even acquired four mask shards, meaning they're still running around with just five health blips. That one extra mask is a game-changer for Hornet's survivability, even if some enemies still hit like a freight train.
It makes you wonder, doesn't it? Is it the sheer hype around Silksong pulling in players who are genuinely up for a challenge, even if they never touched the first one? The article highlights that a significant number of Silksong players are new to the series, jumping in purely on the buzz. Perhaps they're just more resilient, less prone to the early frustration, or simply haven't yet learned the intricate dance of panic-jumping into every attack Team Cherry throws at you.
Comparing it to other famously difficult games, like *Elden Ring*, really highlights Silksong’s pure design philosophy. While *Elden Ring* might throw a Malenia at you (and seriously, good luck with that one), it also offers concessions: summoning a friend, using upgrades, or calling in your spirit ashes. Silksong? Not so much. It's largely you, Hornet, and your ever-improving reflexes against the world. No enormous runbacks after a defeat either, which, let's be honest, is half the battle in some of those other titles.
Now, there are some battles where we can't get clear stats, like the enigmatic Moorwing (no achievement, alas!), so it's tough to see if those are truly breaking players. And yeah, Team Cherry is reportedly planning to nerf some bosses in an upcoming patch, which suggests *some* areas might be tougher than even they intended. But based on the existing data, I reckon the numbers will just keep climbing, especially as guides and 'cheese' strategies for bypassing fights become more widespread. It's the natural evolution of a gaming community tackling a monster.
On the flip side, for the truly dedicated wizards out there, we've got the absurd extremes. About 6% of Steam players have actually finished the game, while a minuscule 0.17% (less than a percent!) have done the same on PSN. I’ll leave any conclusions about platform-specific skill levels to you, mate, but it’s an interesting little tidbit, isn't it? And for those absolute mad lads and lasses, not a single Steam player has finished the game on permadeath mode. That's right, zero. Not even one, which also means no one's hit 100% completion on that particular nightmare. It just goes to show, there are still mountains to climb even for the most seasoned players.
These stats only give us a partial glimpse, mind. They can't quantify the sheer agony, the hours of frustration, the borderline carpal tunnel from trying to nail a pixel-perfect dodge. But personally, I've found a pattern. Every time I hit a roadblock in Silksong – which, let's be real, is often – I go through the cycle. Head-bashing, cursing Team Cherry's devious design, rage quitting, scouring forums for tips, then making a bit of progress. Then I hit a wall where I'm actively getting *worse*. Spirit nearly broken, I walk away. But when I come back? With a bit more patience, a fresh perspective, and the resolve to not make the same stupid mistake a thousand times? Bam. Done. The thing that seemed impossible, that inflated my thumbs to a reddish hue, suddenly clicks.
And I see the same thing online. A player on Reddit describes a platforming challenge as 'inhuman,' saying they've 'never seen something that just completely stumps me like this.' Guess what? Later that same day, they posted again, having progressed through it. That, my friends, is Silksong in a nutshell. We constantly underestimate ourselves, and these achievement stats are just another piece of evidence that the collective gaming community is far more resilient and capable than the initial online 'discourse' might have you believe.
Original reporting by Patricia Hernandez for Polygon. You can find the full article at polygon.com.
Tags: Hollow Knight, Silksong, Gaming Stats, Difficulty, Team Cherry
Original article: Polygon