Video games can take a long time to make. Certain titles receive extensive development time—Hollow Knight: Silksong being an apt case study. Its development became one of myth and legend at one point, but Team Cherry’s carefully created baby is ready to be born into the world.
I played Hollow Knight: Silksong at Gamescom 2025. My 15-minute demo gave me instant hope that the sequel is going to live up to the fevered hype. I’ve said before that you will struggle to find an indie sequel with this much popularity and pressure resting on its nimble shoulders.
Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s development ride has taken a few detours. Let’s revisit history and fill in some blanks for you.
How Long Has Team Cherry Developed Hollow Knight: Silksong For?
It’s estimated that Hollow Knight: Silksong’s development first began in 2018, meaning the game has been in development for seven long years!
This means official work on Silksong began only one year after Hollow Knight was released, and a year before the general public was introduced to Hollow Knight: Silksong altogether.
A fascinating article was released in August 2025 detailing why Hollow Knight: Silksong took so long to release. Quite simply, Team Cherry was having too much fun crafting the game, experimenting with new ideas, and making sure Silksong was worthy of being a sequel—instead of the DLC it was originally intended as.
When Was Hollow Knight: Silksong First Announced?
Hollow Knight: Silksong was first revealed to the world on Feb. 14, 2019, through its reveal trailer.
You can find the “Hollow Knight: Silksong Reveal Trailer” on Team Cherry‘s YouTube channel. The two-minute trailer shows off a decent amount of Silksong, and it seemed like it wouldn’t be that long until we got our hands on the sequel.
Little did we know that it would take over six years until the game launched (and it’s still not technically out yet).
Check out the original reveal trailer below and see if you can spot anything from the Silksong demo or recent trailers and footage.
You can throw the words myth and legend into the bin. Silksong is coming. Team Cherry’s effort should be worth the wait, and I’ll be diving into Pharloom the second it launches. I’m genuinely so excited for Silksong, but let me know your thoughts on it through the Insider Gaming forum.
You should also stick around and see if Silksong is on the Switch or Switch 2, and if you need to play Hollow Knight before Silksong.
