How to Fish is a 1-4 player physics-based fishing simulator from Dazed Games, released August 20, 2026 on Windows via Steam for $7.99 (as of 2026-08-28). It has 28 achievements, five islands, and a first playthrough of roughly 2-6 hours.
What is How to Fish?
How to Fish is a 1-4 player physics-based fishing simulator built around a simple premise: while drinking and boating you crash into a small island, and you have to learn to fish your way back home. The core loop is short to describe and easy to sink hours into: fish, kill fish, sell fish, then reinvest the money in better gear. It is a light, comedic party game rather than a hardcore simulator, which its Steam tags of Action, Casual, Indie, and Simulation reflect.
The game is developed and published by Dazed Games, a small studio that handles both roles itself. It launched on Steam on August 20, 2026 as app 4001890. Because it supports co-op for up to four players, the whole experience scales from a solo grind to a chaotic session with friends.
Progression is quest-driven. You start with no gear or weapons, earn money to buy better equipment, complete quests, and fight bosses to unlock new islands with more dangerous creatures and stronger loot. Along the way you can chase rare "drip" variants of every fish, land trick shots for extra cash, and gamble your catch for even bigger payouts.
Release date, price, and platform snapshot
The fastest way to check the basics is the table below. Everything in it comes from the official Steam listing as it read on 2026-08-28, so treat the price line in particular as a snapshot that will move with sales.
| Detail | Value (as of 2026-08-28) |
|---|---|
| Release date | August 20, 2026 |
| Developer / publisher | Dazed Games |
| Base price | $7.99 |
| Platform | Windows PC (Steam) |
| Mac / Linux | Not supported |
| Players | 1-4 co-op |
| Genres | Action, Casual, Indie, Simulation |
| Steam recommendations | 28,559 |
| Metacritic | None yet |
Windows is currently the only supported platform. The Steam listing marks both Mac and Linux as unsupported, so there is no native build for either and no console version at launch. If you want the deeper breakdown of buying, system requirements, and languages, the How to Fish platforms hub covers that side in full.
System requirements are modest, as you would expect from a small indie fishing game. The minimum tier calls for a 64-bit Windows 10 or newer machine, an Intel Core i5-5257U or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 class CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 1050 or AMD RX 460 class GPU, a broadband connection for co-op, and just 1 GB of storage.
How How to Fish plays
You begin with almost nothing and grind your way up. Free clams are your first income and food source, then a cheap fishing rod unlocks paid catches, and selling those catches funds knives, guns, lures, and boat upgrades. Cooking is the main money multiplier once you unlock a grill: value climbs from 1x to 1.5x on the flame, so you pull a fish at its peak instead of letting it burn to nothing.
Combat is a real part of the loop rather than a side note. Ordinary fish are punched, knifed, or shot, while bosses demand proper weapons and a stock of cooked fish to heal through the fight. The game tracks a "killscore" style system where modifiers stack and multiply, so a flashy kill is worth more money than a plain one.
Two systems drive the collection side. Pressing Tab opens an encyclopedia of every creature, with rare drip variants tracked separately, and it shows what you are still missing. Drip creatures are also the currency for the Reel of Fortune slot machine, where you gamble them for weapon skins on each island.
The five islands and their bosses
Travel is gated by boss fights, and each island has its own quest chain and creatures. The named islands are the Lighthouse, Forest, Desert, Rocks, and the Volcano, and the game funnels you from the starter island out to the volcano for the finale. Different guides number these islands differently, so the safest reference point is always the island name rather than an index.
Bosses are the gate between islands, and each drops a distinct trophy item rather than plain meat, which a quest giver then wants. The opening fight is the spider crab, summoned with a beer-baited rod, and it drops the shell that buys your boat keys. From there you meet fights against creatures like the giant piranha, the pufferfish, a tuna-and-seagull encounter, and a whale before the ending.
The finale is the lava whale, a harder lava-themed version of the regular whale that rolls, stomps, and rains lava meteorites across the arena. A community guide calls it the one genuinely challenging fight in the game and recommends a fully kitted assault rifle plus as many lava-cooked fish as you can carry. Killing it drops a tail that buys the RHIB keys and rolls the ending.
How long does How to Fish take?
A first playthrough is short. ShowGamer puts a normal story run at roughly 2-4 hours, while Destructoid frames a relaxed playthrough at about 5-6 hours, and the difference mostly comes down to how much you explore and fish along the way. If you only care about the credits, the lower end is realistic once you know the route.
Full completion is a different commitment. A community achievements guide reports anywhere from 5 to 20 hours depending on how much you mess around, because rare drip variants and several unusual achievement conditions add randomness and farming. There is no single reliable 100% time, since so much depends on luck with rare catches.
At the fast end, the game has a sub-one-hour achievement, and optimized speedrun routes can finish the main game in roughly 20 minutes. For the detailed timing across story, 100%, and speedrun styles, see how long How to Fish takes.
Achievements and 100% completion
How to Fish has 28 achievements in total. A widely referenced community guide notes that 26 of them are comfortably within most players' reach, and their low unlock percentages reflect players stopping early rather than real difficulty. The two demanding ones are the final boss and the speed achievement.
The sub-one-hour speed achievement is called "Bean" in both the Destructoid guide and the Steam achievements guide. That same Steam guide reports the original route was patched in version 1.0.5, so the old exploit no longer works and a fresh route is needed (one outlet lists this achievement under the name "Bob" instead, so the exact label is 待确认). The author's clean run came in at 57 minutes and change on version 1.0.4.
Other notable unlocks include Handyman, which asks you to land the killing blow on the final boss with your bare fists, and the collection pair Collector and Fishipedia, which require finishing the encyclopedia and every drip variant. Money achievements lean on the island casino, where betting a high-value cooked fish on roulette green pays out 35x.
Player numbers and reception
Live concurrent-player charts were not available in the source material for this page, because the SteamDB charts endpoint returned an access error rather than data. For a real read on live and peak player counts, see the dedicated How to Fish Steam charts page instead.
What the official store data does confirm is the review footprint: the Steam listing carried 28,559 user recommendations when checked on 2026-08-28, which is a rough proxy for how many people bought and reviewed the game. There is no Metacritic score yet, so no review-aggregate number exists to cite. For such a small studio, that recommendation count is a strong early signal.
Where to go next
This page is the game-info overview; the detail pages below drill into the two questions players ask most once they know what the game is.
- How long is How to Fish breaks down story, 100%, and speedrun times, including the sub-one-hour run.
- How to Fish Steam charts covers player-count data and how the game is trending on Steam.
If you are still deciding whether to buy, the platforms and pricing hub has the full purchase picture, and the How to Fish guide picks up once you are actually playing.
In this section
How Long Is How to Fish?
How long is How to Fish? The main story runs about 2 to 6 hours, a sub-hour run unlocks the Bean achievement, and 100% completion can climb toward 20 hours.
How to Fish Steam Charts and Player Count
How to Fish Steam charts explained: track the live player count on SteamDB for app 4001890, plus its 28,559 recommendations and $7.99 price as of Aug 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Who made How to Fish and when did it release?
It was developed and published by Dazed Games and released on Steam on August 20, 2026. The studio handles both development and publishing itself.
Is How to Fish single-player or multiplayer?
Both. It is a 1-4 player physics-based fishing simulator, so you can play solo or in co-op with up to three friends. Every player currently needs a Windows PC copy.
How much does How to Fish cost?
The base price on Steam is $7.99 as of 2026-08-28. Prices move with seasonal sales and regional pricing, so treat that as a snapshot rather than a fixed figure.
How many achievements does How to Fish have?
There are 28 achievements. A community guide reports that 26 of them are within most players' reach, while the sub-one-hour Bean run and the final boss are the two demanding ones.
How long does How to Fish take to beat?
A first story run is about 2-4 hours, with some outlets citing 5-6 hours. Full completion can run 5-20 hours depending on how much you explore and farm.