Hytale has been on quite a development journey. After being acquired and subsequently shuttered by Riot Games, the original development team bought the Minecraft rival back and recommenced development in November 2025. On January 13, the title goes into early access, which the team acknowledges will be unpolished and full of bugs. Still, Hypixel–the developer behind one of the most popular Minecraft servers of all time–is expecting mammoth launch-day numbers, estimating “over 1 million” players. To that end, the studio is encouraging users to download the game’s launcher ahead of time in order.
Hypixel’s CEO, Simon Collins-Laflamme, posted on X stating, “We expect over 1 million players on the early access release day for Hytale … Please download the launcher today and log in now to help us significantly reduce launch-day stress.” Hypixel’s preorders have been open since early December, so the team has had around a month to gauge interest, meaning this player estimate is based on those figures and not just speculation.
