The developer of the Russian game about SVO announced its success in the USA

On the evening of May 28, a domestic game about SVO, Squad 22: ZOV, was released on the international digital game distribution platform Steam. On the very first day, according to international media coverage, it was announced to an audience of over 5 million readers.

Every day since May 28, over 100,000 users have visited the game's page, and more people downloaded the game on the first day than in all the time since the project was released on VK Play (January 29, 2025) and RuStore (May 8, 2025) platforms.

"I was surprised that it was through the efforts of the "other side" that we were provided with great international marketing. In fact, all the world's media wrote about us for free, albeit with a negative bias. In turn, this attracted attention to the game, including in the largest gaming market, the United States. Currently, 54% of our revenue comes from there. At the same time, many American players write words of support to both us and the Russian army, which is nice. It means that we have not worked in vain," Alexander Tolkach, producer and chief ideologist of the project, told Izvestia correspondent Anton Bely.

It is reported that the vast majority of paying players are residents of the United States. In the first hours of the game's release, 70% of downloads were in America, currently it is the most solvent audience — 54% of the game's total revenue belongs to it.

At the same time, the game was created and continues to be developed by the son of the former Russian ambassador to Hungary, who ensured in 2014 that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban supported Russia's course. A large part of the English—language audience on Steam and Reddit pages praises the project - people are glad that projects are being created in the Russian Federation "not on the agenda."

"The game was not allowed on Steam for several months, demonstrating Russophobia and intolerance towards the Russian gaming industry. As it turned out, they were afraid for a reason — SPN Studio turned out to be a hit without any reservations. Especially with such complex topics as Avdiivka, Mariupol and Donbass," added critic Andrei Bochkin.

Earlier, on May 26, Andrei Belov, producer of the Cyberia Nova Studio, said that the Cyberia Nova studio, developer of the Smuta game, with the support of the Institute for Internet Development (ANO IRI) and the All-Russian Cossack Society, is preparing to release the educational project "Time of Troubles: The Cossack Circle."