Grounded reaches 10 million players, official release coming later this year

What you need to know

• Grounded, from Obsidian Entertainment, shrinks players to the size of insects and challenges them to survive in a suburban backyard.
• The title is currently in early access, but has already amassed 10 million players, according to the Grounded team.
• To celebrate, Obsidian put together a short "thank you" video and is releasing a Grounded-themed Dynamic background for Xbox Series X|S.
• It was also revealed that Grounded's official 1.0 release is expected to arrive at some point in 2022.

Grounded is a unique and fascinating survival game from the talented creators at Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios, and has evolved significantly during its time in early access. On Thursday, the Grounded team revealed that their passion project has already surpassed a staggering 10 million players across Xbox and PC, an astounding milestone to hit before the game officially releases. Additionally, it has been revealed that Grounded's 1.0 launch is expected to arrive later in 2022.

To celebrate Grounded reaching over 10 million players, the small team at Obsidian is celebrating in a number of ways. First, Grounded director Adam Brennecke appears in the above video to personally give thanks to the rapidly expanding Grounded community. Grounded players enjoying the intense survival game on Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S will also be able to apply a Grounded-themed dynamic background to their Dashboard.

Perhaps the most exciting for invested Grounded players, however, is the announcement that the 1.0 Grounded update, and its full official release, are coming. While an exact date wasn't specified, Grounded is expected to arrive in full and feature-complete at some point during 2022. In the meantime, Obsidian Entertainment is still working hard on future updates and brand-new content for players to enjoy.

In case you missed it, Grounded recently rolled out the 'Into the Wood' update, which added new explorable areas, plenty of new bugs and creatures to discover, a handful of new crafting recipes to unlock, and mountains of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes. Grounded is already one of the best Xbox games for survival fans, and it's only going to get better ahead of its official launch.

If you've yet to experience Grounded and its unique survival gameplay, it's currently available in early access on Xbox and PC, including through Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. Brennecke also revealed during the short "thank you" video that Grounded is getting a free-to-play weekend on Steam in the near future, opening the doors to even more players. Details for that weekend weren't revealed, but it should be coming soon.