No Man's Sky reached its ten-year milestone on August 9, exactly one decade after launching in 2016. In letters published on the PlayStation Blog and Xbox Wire, Sean Murray, founder of Hello Games, reflected on the journey of the space exploration game.
According to Murray, the title achieved its highest player count since the original launch in 2026, surpassing even last year's Voyagers update. The game has accumulated tens of millions of players over the decade, who have logged hundreds of millions of hours within its procedurally generated universe. A striking statistic: despite a full decade of play, the community has explored less than 1% of available planets.
From 2016 to 2026, Hello Games shipped over 45 major free updates, introducing base building, ship customization, multiplayer, companions, mechs, and more. Murray emphasized that the team, still relatively small, was driven by a love of science fiction and a desire to bring color, variety, and weirdness back to a genre that had grown gray and militaristic. He wanted to showcase the infinite possibilities of exploration rather than faction warfare across space.
The celebration also marks the announcement of the next major expansion, titled Cosmos. Hello Games reiterated its commitment to free, continuous updates, rejecting additional monetization. Murray stated it "wouldn't be good for my mental health" to know how much money the studio could have made from paid DLC instead.
The studio recently won awards for Best Evolving Game at both The Game Awards and BAFTA, categories designed to recognize titles that continue receiving substantial content years after release.
