Now that Subnautica 2 is out, the most wishlisted game on Steam is… a game that’s been out for almost 2 years?
The release of Subnautica 2 last week has reshuffled Steam’s most-wishlisted games chart, but with an unexpected result. Rather than a new game claiming the top spot, Deadlock—which has already been available for nearly two years—has claimed the position of most-wishlisted game on the platform.
Subnautica 2 had dominated the most-wishlisted list for an extended period, holding the top position since the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong in September 2025. The sequel’s actual launch was expected to vacate the wishlist as players moved from anticipating the game to actually purchasing and playing it. However, the shift in rankings revealed an unusual situation: Deadlock’s prominence on the wishlist despite its long availability raises questions about how Steam categorizes and tracks games that remain in early access or early development stages.
The phenomenon highlights the peculiar status of Deadlock within Steam’s ecosystem. Valve, the game’s developer and publisher, has maintained an unusual approach to the game’s official status—treating it as unreleased for wishlist purposes while allowing users to play it. This creates the oddity where a game that has been accessible to players for almost two years continues to accumulate wishlists as if it were still in anticipation phase.
The situation underscores how major game launches can significantly impact Steam’s ranking systems and user behavior around wishlists. While Subnautica 2’s debut should theoretically have cleared many wishlists as players purchased the game, Deadlock’s ascent to the top of the chart demonstrates either strong ongoing interest in the title or the ways in which Steam’s metrics can produce unexpected results when games blur the line between early access and full release.