Military survival FPS Gray Zone Warfare blows past even Manor Lords to become Steam's new hit, selling 500,000 copies after just 3 days despite Early Access troubles

Gray Zone Warfare
(Image credit: Madfinger Games)

Gray Zone Warfare is the hot new shooter on Steam with over 500,000 copies sold in just a few days, and it's one of TikTok owner Bytedance's big success stories.

Gray Zone Warfare launched into Steam Early Access on April 30, but it already looks like a certified hit for developer Madfinger Games. As of May 1, the FPS game had sold over 400,000 copies, but a press release earlier today reveals that Gray Zone Warfare has now managed to shift over 500,000 copies in total since launch.

What's more, the press release claims that 250,000 of these users have purchased any one of the "DLC editions" of Gray Zone Warfare. This means half of the total player base has purchased an upgrade edition of the FPS game, and there are three to choose from in total - the Tactical Edition, Elite Edition, and finally the Supporter Edition.

Gray Zone Warfare is so popular that it's even overtaken Manor Lords on Steam's best-sellers chart. The new strategy game might've sold one million copies in just one day, but Gray Zone Warfare has blown past it in terms of copies sold over the last few days, and right now, it sits only behind the free-to-play Counter-Strike 2 on Steam's best-sellers list.

This isn't to say that it's been a flawless launch for Gray Zone Warfare. The game currently sits at a 'Mixed' average review grade on Steam, with the main complaint being that the FPS game is very poorly optimized, and players frequently encounter issues like stuttering and crashes.

In short, Gray Zone Warfare is a PvPvE game set within a vast jungle, where you join a private military company and explore a big MMO island. You'll need to keep yourself fed and hydrated while exploring Lamang Island, which is to say nothing of fending off enemy squadrons, whether they're player or AI-driven. Gray Zone Warfare looks a lot more tactical than your Call of Duty or Battlefield games.

Additionally, it's interesting to note that Gray Zone Warfare is another hit for TikTok owner Bytedace. Developer Madfinger Games, based in the Czech Republic, received funding for the game from the Chinese company back in 2021, which came well before late 2023, when reports claimed that Bytedance would be restructuring its gaming division and winding down investments.

Check out our new games 2024 guide for a look ahead at all the other great new games we can look forward to this year.

CATEGORIES
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

Read more
Year in review: Art of a Helldivers 2 squad with a flag for Super Earth battle space robots and bugs
Managed democracy wins out as Helldivers 2 leads our best shooters of 2024, with plenty of fierce FPS competition close behind
Looking out from a helicopter in Delta Force: Black Hawk Down as other ones circle
Delta Force – Black Hawk Down's missions aim to be challenging: "Players will need to adapt and learn from unsuccessful runs"
A Helldiver from Helldivers 2 stand proudly atop a pile of Terminids.
Helldivers 2 lead thought it would bang, but not that hard: "We were prepared for having 150,000 players peak CCU"
A group of space marines in a shootout in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, one of 2024's best shooters along with Stalker 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops 6
2024 was the year I rekindled my love of shooters – and it's all thanks to Stalker 2, Black Ops 6, and Space Marine 2
A hangar door opens, throwing two mechs into close-quarters battle in Mecha Break
PvP shooter Mecha Break is dominating Steam Next Fest with player numbers matching Marvel Rivals and GTA 5 even as it suffers mostly negative reviews
tanks rolling down a street
A battle in this WW2 MMO went on for over 2 months and killed 9 million players, so devs stepped in to end it early, only for "one last hurrah" to win it anyway
Latest in FPS
Doom: The Dark Ages screenshot
Doom director claims The Dark Ages can be beaten without using a gun, but "the game's not necessarily built to do that"
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Battlefield dev reveals more of his Bad Company 3 script and confirms the plot would revolve around the squad getting kicked out of the military and brought back for a final suicide mission
A Titan readies for combat in an animated trailer for Apex Legends Season 19
Yet another Respawn shooter has reportedly been canceled, following the studio's Star Wars FPS and rumored Titanfall Legends game to the grave
A cropped screenshot from the pre-alpha gameplay footage shown in the 'Introducing Battlefield Labs' video.
Battlefield 6's first teaser takes me back to the days of Modern Warfare 2 lobbies and 24/7 Metro matches, proving we all crave a return to shooters' simpler times
Doom
Doom: The Dark Ages' new cutscenes exist because of fans' unlikely obsession with the series' lore: "A Doom game that doesn’t have a story is just an arcade game”
Battlefield Bad Company 2
"I am freaked out by how much might actually have been accurate": Battlefield Bad Company 3 writer unearths forgotten script
Latest in News
Walton Goggins in The Righteous Gemstones
The final season of Fallout star's HBO comedy has debuted to a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft guild cheats its way to winning Race for World First, gets caught, banned, then reverses its name and does it all over again
A AMD Ryzen 7 8700G being put into it's socket by a reviewer
AMD's new Ryzen 9 X3D processors launch today, here's the stock I've found so far
GTA 3 Mobile screenshot showing claude running away from police near a casino
The fan-made Dreamcast version of GTA 3 is looking way better in the latest look, introducing tech that "would’ve previously been a slideshow"
Scarlett Johansson in Jurassic World Rebirth
Jurassic World Rebirth studio asked Scarlett Johansson to join Instagram, but she refused: "The film will do fine"
Deltarune
Undertale creator Toby Fox's tomfoolery leaves Deltarune testers thinking an intentional nerf was actually a bug after they "independently" discovered it