Checked on 21 October 2026 against GONE Fishing 1.0 (20 October 2026, with the 20 October hotfix). Steam app 3645890 by GONE Studios. Forum dates are UTC.

Short answer. The Steam store page describes GONE Fishing as a "1-8 player survival horror game" [S1]. You can play solo or host a lobby that is private or public [S2]. The store lists Windows 10 (64-bit) in both its minimum and recommended requirements [S1]. No store text or official post read for this page mentions crossplay or a Steam Deck rating, so both are open questions here.

How many players can join a game?

The store page opens with "1-8 player survival horror game" [S1]. The 8-player lobby arrived during Early Access [S3]:

  • On 13 December 2025 (Early Access), the post titled "ALPHA 4.0: The Late Game Update" added 8-player lobbies and said "Yep, 8 whole players. This could be buggy" [S3]. The same post told players that if they could not get more than 4 players into the lobby, "your friends can simply join after you start the game via shift+tab" [S3].
  • On 8 January 2026 (Early Access), a patch fixed a bug where, with max players set above 4, the lake monster glitched when grabbing a player from bed [S17].
  • On 3 September 2026 (Early Access), the intro airplane cutscene was fixed and "also supports up to 8 people" [S6].

Those are the dated lobby-size changes found in the official posts. The post titled "GONE FISHING 1.0 FULL RELEASE IS NOW LIVE!!!" does not restate the player cap [S8].

Can you play solo or with fewer friends?

Yes. The store text says "Bring friends or go solo" [S1].

  • On 31 July 2026 (Early Access), GONE Studios wrote: "Added a solo mode. In addition to solo, you can now choose a lobby size for 2 or 3 people" [S4].
  • On 11 August 2026 (Early Access), the patch notes list a fix for a bug where selecting 1 for number of players would cause you to be unable to start the game [S5].
  • On 9 April 2026 (Early Access), the save-game revamp let you choose a public or private lobby and a lobby name when loading a save. The post adds: "The player count of the lobby will be the original player count when you created the save" [S7].

In a video titled "How to start a GONE Fishing Save! Solo Guide." from SilverFoilHat (uploaded 19 September 2026, Early Access), the player sets a lake save to eight people while running solo, so friends can come in later (at 1:39) [S15]. They add that a save can be loaded as solo and friends can join on day two, and that "You just always have to do the day one solo" (at 58:44) [S15]. No Update 1.0 source repeats this advice, so treat it as a player report from before launch.

Public lobbies and joining strangers

GONE Studios added a lobby system on 9 September 2025 (Early Access). A lobby can be private or public, and a public lobby "will appear in the server browser" [S2]. The same post recommends joining servers with less than 100 ping, and says you can kick someone from the options menu [S2]. On 17 December 2025 (Early Access), a patch "Updated the max server size for joinable servers via the server browser" without giving a number [S16].

On 19 October 2026, the player Bigsexy answered a thread asking whether you can play with randoms: "when hosting, players have the option of making their server public allowing randos to join" [S11].

What changed for groups at launch

The Update 1.0 post reworked costs for lobbies with more than one player. It says prices used to scale linearly with the number of players, and gives an example: an upgrade that costs 100 with one player would cost 400 in a lobby of 4 under the old rule, and "~200" under the new one [S8]. The post says quota growth got the same treatment: "No longer does quota scale linearly with the number of players" [S8]. For the rest, see the Update 1.0 changes.

The hotfix of 20 October 2026 changed shared achievements so that everyone in the lobby earns the achievement when one player catches a legendary or mythical fish [S9]. A day earlier, on 19 October 2026, the player Matte3rd had written that when a non-host catches a rare fish, the achievement pops up only for that player, while a host catch gives it to everyone [S10]. The hotfix post is the newer, official statement. Achievement names and global rates are on the achievements page.

Is there crossplay?

The sources read for this page do not answer this. The one connection explanation found is from the player Bigsexy, who wrote on 18 September 2025 (Early Access) that Steam uses P2P (UDP) traffic and that a router or ISP may be "blocking or mishandling the P2P (UDP) traffic that Steam uses" [S12].

Does it run on Steam Deck?

No Steam Deck status appears in the store data or in the official posts read for this page. The only mention is a wish: on 31 August 2026 the player Xeawn Rafa listed "full offline play, full controller support, and handheld PC/steam deck" among the things that would make them pick the game up [S13].

Controller support is separate from Deck support. On 19 February 2026 (Early Access), GONE Studios wrote "I have finally finished controller support for the game" [S14]. The same post says you can change the on-screen glyphs to your controller in the options menu [S14].

System requirements on Steam

MinimumRecommended
OSWindows 10 (64-bit) [S1]Windows 10 (64-bit) [S1]
ProcessorIntel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600 [S1]Intel Core i7-12400 / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X [S1]
Memory6 GB RAM [S1]12 GB RAM [S1]
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 [S1]NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 / AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT [S1]
DirectXVersion 11 [S1]Version 12 [S1]
Storage6 GB available space [S1]6 GB available space [S1]

The store lists VR support as None [S1].

Joining problems

The Steam thread "Can't join your friends lobby or they can't join you?" has two causes on record. Bigsexy wrote on 18 September 2025 (Early Access) that "If you are on a different version, you will be unable to join your friends server and vise versa" and suggested restarting Steam to pull the update [S12]. A second report, from Chef Meatballs on 28 September 2026, found that a friend's connected PS4 controller kept them from joining each other until it was disconnected [S12]. PancakeMan64 wrote on 27 September 2026, while on the demo, that a mobile hotspot and different internet connections did not fix their loading-screen problem [S12].

Sources and version

Checked on 2026-10-21 against GONE Fishing 1.0 (20 October 2026, with the 20 October hotfix).