this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2026
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Mewgenics, the new release from Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, the indie devs behind hit roguelike The Binding of Isaac and all its subsequent expansions, smashed through 250,000 copies sold in just 12 hours.

In a tweet posted by Glaiel, he screenshotted a post from 2023 where he explained it would need to sell that much for him to "consider Mewgenics a success." Shortly before, IGN reported the game sold over 150,000 copies in six hours, and that McMillen's previous sales record came with The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, at 40,000 in one day.

This came just a few hours after he revealed the team "made back their development budget after three hours," which given the game was first announced in 2012, is a huge accomplishment. That's a whopping 14 years, although it was put on hold in 2014, canceled in 2016, then picked back up again two years later

To celebrate, Glaiel posted a picture of both him and McMillen with a cat-shaped cake, while they each hold replica awards and wear gold medals. At the time of writing, Mewgenics peaked with a player count just a few shy of 66,000 on Steam, and it was the top-selling game on the platform yesterday.

It's also been received to critical acclaim, with a Metacritic score of 89 from 38 reviews. Polygon's Mewgenics review describes it as "a charmingly churlish game" that "players could likely get years of entertainment from," along with considering it "the first GOTY contender" for 2026.

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[–] bloopything@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

I really like binding of isaac, i think it's one of the best rogue style games i've ever played and certainly a "classic" of the genre, in comparison to that i think mewgenics misses the mark.

Isaacs edgy childish humor is narratively cohesive and enhances that trauma processing space the game puts the player in, blending biblical and childhood elements in absurd ways it creates an atmosphere that is at once disturbing and also comforting which fits well with the tension of the rogue format.

Mewgenics edgy childish humor is just kinda that on it's own. the game doesn't seem to have anything to strongly instill about genetics or science or even about cats. The moment to moment game play is engaging enough but i think it could just as easily be about robots or cryptid: The way the cats fight isn't particularly cat like other than in name, in fact the cats in general feel kinda un-cat-like, from the (imo annoying) human voiced meows to their unfocused vacant expressions and imprecise movement.

I've only played a few runs of the game so perhaps it gets more meaty in some way at a later point, but as is i feel rather undernourished

[–] bloopything@hexbear.net 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Never mind just found out they got h3h3 doing the stupid cat meows, extra glad i pirated it now pirate-jammin i ain't playin' any more of that shit

[–] GoebbelsDeezNuts@hexbear.net 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

its also got Stephanie Sterling, and Hbomb

in one of the dev videos he talked about how old a lot of the recordings are, im guessing they're from before ethan went mask off but they're still in there so who knows

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago

I'm gonna dm him on twitter and bully him about the ethan kkklein shit.

[–] poster596@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago

Exactly my impression too. It seems like some kind of "Isaac tactics" project got retrofitted onto the cat theme after the simulation game prototype went nowhere for 10 years. Humor and writing feel dated and out of place.