Eleven million players have survived the frost. That’s the milestone 11 Bit Studios just dropped during their Frostpunk Franchise Fest showcase, and honestly, it’s a number that’s hard to wrap your head around when you think about how this series started — a bleak, brutal city-builder where coal and hard moral choices kept your people alive.
“Seeing 11m brave the frost: it’s just unreal,” said Frostpunk 2 game director Łukasz Juszczyk in the franchise update video. “Back when I was an artist on the first Frostpunk, none of us expected the avalanche it would trigger.”
That avalanche is still going. The announcement wasn’t just a victory lap — it came packed with new reveals that fans of the series have been waiting for.
Frostpunk 2’s Next DLC Flips the Script: Heat Is Now the Enemy
The second DLC for Frostpunk 2, titled Breach of Trust, is set to launch June 23 across all platforms. And the concept is genuinely clever — in a game where surviving the cold has always been the whole point, this expansion turns that idea completely on its head.
The story takes players to New Edinburgh, a city built dangerously close to a volcano that was destabilized through the reckless use of geothermal energy to power its Generator. So the very resource people exploited for warmth is now threatening to destroy everything they built.
Players step into the role of First Citizen, held accountable by periodic Votes of Trust that reflect the city’s approval of their leadership. Mess up, and not only does lava threaten your gates — your own people might vote you out.
As Juszczyk put it: “In Breach of Trust, the heat is no longer your salvation: it might just be your downfall.”
The DLC isn’t thin on content either. It introduces five unique communities and factions with distinct backgrounds and ideologies, new environmental hazards including Tremors and Volcano Night mechanics, and an Independent Colony system that lets players choose between trade, extortion, or outright conquest. A former colony called Aurora also factors into the story, and you’ll need to keep citizens happy with your methods while unraveling the full narrative.
Players who want an early look can sign up for the closed playtest, with 11 Bit saying the start date will be announced in the near future.
And Breach of Trust isn’t the end of it. The studio also teased a third DLC with the codename “Surge,” which has a 2026 window on the roadmap. Whatever they’re building toward, it sounds like Frostpunk 2’s post-launch support is far from finished.
If you’re the type of player who gets hooked on strategy games with serious replay value, you might also want to check out Slay the Spire 2’s meteoric rise on Steam in March 2026 — another game proving that deep, challenging gameplay still absolutely sells.
Frostpunk 1886: More Than Just a Visual Upgrade
Beyond the sequel news, 11 Bit also pulled back the curtain — just slightly — on Frostpunk 1886, which is a remake of the original game rather than a simple engine swap.
Game director Maciej Sułecki confirmed it adds a new Purpose upgrade path, which shifts focus toward community strength over pure survival efficiency. There’s also a new close-up camera perspective, wider city views, and entirely new explorable areas baked into the experience.
The studio has scheduled Frostpunk 1886 for release in 2027, and a monthly devblog series called “Revisiting New London” kicks off Thursday — promising a deep look at how the team is rethinking the game that started it all. Sułecki summarized the goal simply: “We want Frostpunk 1886 to be the definitive experience of the game that started it all.”
Frostpunk Is Finally Coming to Nintendo Switch
Here’s one fans of handheld gaming have been waiting for. 11 Bit Studios confirmed that the original Frostpunk is coming to Nintendo Switch, though no specific release date was provided.
The game is already available on PlayStation and Xbox, where it reportedly translates the city-building experience pretty well to a controller. Bringing it to Switch makes sense — the format of building, managing, and making gut-punch decisions actually suits portable play nicely. Whether this also hints at a potential Switch 2 version down the line remains to be seen, but the confirmation alone is worth noting.
Speaking of games expanding to new platforms and audiences, the Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration Set is another big 2026 release attracting serious collector attention right now.
Comics, LARP, and a Franchise That’s Growing in Every Direction
On the more unexpected side of things, 11 Bit also announced a Frostpunk comic book — written by Justin Jordan and illustrated by Ryan Benjamin, published through Rocketship. The world of the franchise is clearly rich enough to expand well beyond the games themselves.
There was even footage from a Frostpunk LARP event held in Poland. Yes, people voluntarily spent extended time in genuine cold weather roleplaying survival scenarios. By all accounts, they came out of it in good spirits and — importantly — none of them ended up in a stew.
What Makes This Milestone Feel Earned
Frostpunk has always been about more than just managing resources. The original dropped players into desperate survival on an individual scale — every decision felt personal. Frostpunk 2 zoomed out to the level of society, which made the stakes bigger but also more abstract, and that shift didn’t land as smoothly with every player at launch.
But 11 million sales across both games is proof that the core idea — survival under pressure, moral compromise, the weight of leadership — still resonates deeply. To mark the occasion, 11 Bit Studios is releasing commemorative merchandise and has launched a major Steam sale covering all Frostpunk franchise titles and DLCs.
Breach of Trust arrives June 23. The Switch port is coming. 1886 is in development. And apparently something even bigger is brewing beyond all of that. Eleven million is a milestone, but it sounds like 11 Bit Studios is treating it as a starting point.
