Rocket League: What’s behind its recent surge in popularity?

Image credit: Epic Games Rocket League is an arcade racing game developed by Psyonix that first came out in 2015, becoming free-to-play in 2020 after being bought by Epic Games.

Players control a rocket-powered car to dribble a ball into a goal.

For a few years, Rocket League has been flagging in terms of playerbase and features, with some going to the Rocket Racing part of Fortnite instead.

In January 2026, the game surprisingly saw a huge uptick, resulting in one million concurrent players.

Rocket League surprised everyone on January 25, when its playerbase spiked to one million, something unheard of for the free-to-play racing game in recent years. Many had cut ties with the game, growing…