S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Launch Overwhelms Ukrainian Internet

The survival horror shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, became so popular in Ukraine that it caused a nationwide internet slowdown. Dive in to learn about the game's launch and hear from the developers themselves!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Takes Over Ukraine's Internet

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's massive popularity led to a significant slowdown of Ukraine's internet on its launch day, November 20th. Ukrainian internet providers Tenet and Triolan shared on their Telegram channels that the internet worked normally during the day but experienced a drastic speed drop by evening. This was due to the thousands of eager Ukrainian gamers simultaneously downloading the game. As reported by ITC, Triolan stated, "Currently, there is a temporary decrease in Internet speed in all directions. This is due to the increased load on the channels due to the massive interest in the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R."

Even after downloading, players faced slow login times. The internet issue persisted for hours until all interested players completed their downloads. GSC Game World, the game's developer, expressed both pride and shock at the situation.

"It was hard for the whole country and it's a bad thing because the internet is important, but at the same time it's like whoa!" said creative director Mariia Grygorovych. "For us and our team what's most important is, for some people in Ukraine, they feel a little bit happier than they were before release," she added. "We did something for our home country, something good for them."

The game's popularity was undeniable, selling 1 million copies just two days after its release. Despite performance issues and bugs, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 sold exceptionally well worldwide, particularly in Ukraine.

GSC Game World, a Ukrainian studio with offices in Kyiv and Prague, faced challenges in releasing the game due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which caused multiple delays. However, they were determined to launch in November and succeeded. The studio is now focused on releasing update patches to fix bugs, optimize performance, and address crashes. Their third major patch was released earlier this week.