Subnautica 2 Has Sold 2 Million Copies but Still Won’t Let You Kill Every Fish

Subnautica 2, the Unknown Worlds sequel to Subnautica, launched in Early Access on May 14 and has already sold more than 2 million copies, according to the original report. At the same time, PC Gamer says the studio has drawn a hard line on one divisive issue: Subnautica 2 is not being steered toward freeform killing of marine life, a stance that has continued to frustrate some players since launch.

In survival-sandbox terms, this looks less like a sudden reversal than a clearer statement of the game's boundaries. The first Subnautica also leaned heavily on marine ecology and the pressure of the unknown, but players could eventually spend enough time removing high-threat creatures bit by bit. In practice, that let a game built around environmental tension turn into a low-risk resource run by the late game. Subnautica 2 plainly does not want to leave that route open.

Gameplay design lead Anthony Gallegos put it bluntly: the team wants players to "exist" on the planet, not "dominate" it. From a design standpoint, that says more than any marketing pitch could. It means hostile creatures are not meant to be conventional obstacles you permanently clear away, but long-term environmental variables that keep exploration tense and risk meaningful.

The backlash is not hard to understand. A lot of survival games run on a familiar loop: face danger, craft better gear, solve that danger. If players invest resources but still cannot deliver a "lethal counterattack" against certain creatures, some will naturally feel that the progression loop is missing a final step. That reaction is even easier to see here because the previous game let players kill fish directly with a knife, while Subnautica 2 takes a firmer and more explicit restrictive stance on freely hunting wildlife.

Unknown Worlds has not removed defensive options altogether, though. The team has said players can still use flares to draw predators' attention, and that some future resource-gathering tool will also be able to drive marine life away more directly. Players can still catch fish for food, or throw them into a bioreactor for fuel. In other words, the game is restricting the idea of treating the ecosystem like a checklist to delete, not restricting self-defense or the use of ecological resources.

Creative producer Scott MacDonald offered the clearest example with the Leviathan. In the first game, the creature was meant to be a source of constant pressure, and the team assumed its extremely high health pool would keep players from killing it. But players eventually learned that, given enough time, they could kill Leviathans anyway, then systematically clear the map so they could harvest resources without danger. From the developers' perspective, that makes an area completely safe, but it also strips out the game's tension. The team wants Leviathans to remain present so players never feel like masters of the world, and instead learn to coexist with its creatures.

As buying advice goes, Subnautica 2 is a better fit for two kinds of players: those who value environmental storytelling, resource management, and pressure from the unknown, and those who accept that avoidance is part of survival-game play. On the other hand, if what you want is to build an absolutely safe zone, gradually erase every threat, and eventually turn the map into a private backyard, this game's current direction probably will not satisfy you. The developers have already been clear that this design philosophy is unlikely to change. If you still really want to wipe out every fish, a future mod may be the thing that fills that gap.

From a genre-positioning standpoint, Subnautica 2 is not trying to become a broader, do-everything sequel. It is doubling down on ecological pressure as its defining lane. That choice may not please everyone, but it does keep the game's identity clear. For an Early Access title already past 2 million sales, the willingness to hold that line now suggests the team cares more about preserving what makes the series distinct than adding features just to chase a wider round of approval.