Dead as Disco is May 2026's surprise 'Overwhelmingly Positive' Steam hit

1 week ago 8

Published May 13, 2026, 12:30 PM EDT

Musical beat-'em-up Dead as Disco is a top seller

The Dead as Disco main character stands in sunglasses in Dead as Disco

Dead as Disco is a surprise Steam hit following its early access release last week. The music brawler has already sold 200,000 copies and reached an "Overwhelmingly Positive" user review status in its first week.

Developed by Brain Jar Games, Dead as Disco is a fusion between a beat-'em-up and a rhythm game. As Charlie Disco, you pummel bad guys to the beat of the game's genre-spanning soundtrack. Every hit maps to the song naturally, making it a sort of musical spin on the Batman: Arkham series' free-flowing combat. It launched into Steam early access on May 5.

Since then, Dead as Disco has consistently hung around Steam's Best Sellers list. It's still ranking high there, alongside recent hits like Windrose and Far Far West. Brain Jar Games confirmed in a news release that the game sold 200,000 copies in less than a week. Its player base seems to be digging it as well: Brain Jar Games said in the same news release that user reviews are currently 96% "Overwhelmingly Positive" with over 4,700 user reviews. (Steam's frontend shows a similar "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating, though as of this writing, based on closer to 3,000 reviews.)

While it might sound like Dead as Disco came out of nowhere, its success isn't entirely shocking. The indie game became a viral hit a year before its release thanks to a popular demo. Videos of content creators fighting alongside custom music have racked up hundreds of thousands of views in the past year. Just a few weeks before the early access launch, Brain Jar Games confirmed that Dead as Disco had hit one million wishlists.

It's easy to see why fans are so onboard with Dead as Disco even in its early state. In my first impressions of the launch version, I noted that the game's musical combat is fluid, responsive, and punchy. Each hit comes with a strong sense of feedback since it lands perfectly on beat with a satisfying thump. While there's still work to be done to buff up the story, Brain Jar Games has a solid foundation for a rhythm game, especially since Dead as Disco launched with full support for custom music.

Dead as Disco is available now on Windows PC via Steam. A 1.0 launch is currently slated for 2027.

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