Can You Get Hollow Knight for Free? Ways to Play Without Buying It
Hollow Knight is a paid game. Steam Families, giveaways and reward apps can lower what you pay, and the stores we track compete on price. What each route really involves.
Hollow Knight is a paid game. You may be able to play it without buying it through Steam Families, and you can often pay less than the list price. The card below leads to our price comparison, where some store links earn us a commission.
Is Hollow Knight a free game?
No, and sites that offer a “free download” of it are handing out unlicensed copies, often with malware attached. Stick to authorized stores, Steam Families or a promotion the store itself announces. Hollow Knight is Team Cherry’s hand-drawn 2D action adventure through a ruined kingdom of insects, first released on 24 February 2017. It is a single-player game, and on Steam it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Years after launch its reputation holds: on 2 October 2026 its Steam rating stood at 97 % positive across 562,389 reviews, with 7,358 players online that day. The ESRB rates it Everyone 10+.
Free ways to play Hollow Knight
Borrow a family member’s copy
On 6 October 2026 Steam listed Hollow Knight among its Family Sharing games. In a Steam Family (Steam’s household feature), a copy one member owns can be played by another from the shared family library, with separate saves and achievements; the purchase stays the owner’s. Because only one person at a time can use a copy, this works best for a single-player game like Hollow Knight. Look for it in your family library before counting on it.
Store giveaways
Stores sometimes give a game away for a limited time. Our free games page lists the games you can claim for free right now.
Reward apps
Some apps pay points for playing mobile games or completing tasks, and let you exchange the points for gift cards that can be spent on games. Which apps and offers you get depends on your device and country; collecting enough can take days or weeks; there is no guaranteed amount; and each app sets its own age limits and payout rules. You still buy the game, with credit you earned. We have no commercial relationship with any reward app.
How cheap Hollow Knight gets
Discounts on Hollow Knight are the norm rather than the exception. Across the stores we track, it sold below Steam’s list price in 11 of the last 12 months. Its deepest monthly low, in September 2026, was 50 % below today’s Steam list price. The Hollow Knight price history covers more than two years and shows each month’s low, so you can judge whether today’s offer is a good one.
Our Steam sale dates list the next big Steam sale if you would rather wait.
Where to buy it
We compare PC prices. Hollow Knight is on sale at official stores, key retailers and marketplaces; the card shows every store we currently track and the lowest listed price. Two things to know before you pick:
- One edition. Steam sells a single edition, simply called Hollow Knight, so there is no deluxe version to choose between.
- Checkout fees. Some marketplaces add a service fee at checkout; the Hollow Knight price page flags those stores in its offer table.
Will it run on your PC?
Most PCs will: Steam lists 4 GB of RAM as the minimum (8 GB recommended) and 9 GB of storage. Details are on the Hollow Knight system requirements page. Steam’s page (6 October 2026) lists full gamepad support and 11 interface languages.
Store links on our game pages may be affiliate links: if you buy through them, the store may pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. How we earn money.
Questions
Can two people in my Steam Family play it at the same time?
Not on one copy. A shared copy runs for one person at a time, so if the owner is playing, you wait.
Is there another game in the series?
Yes: Hollow Knight: Silksong belongs to the same series and has its own price page.
Guides written and checked by the SuperDuperBundle team against our own price data and the stores' published policies.