Electronic Arts and developer Full Circle have revealed that their rebooted Skate — now stylized as skate. — has surpassed 15 million players within three weeks of its Early Access launch.
Released into Early Access on September 16, 2025, skate. is a free-to-play, cross-platform title that revives the franchise’s signature Flick-It control system in a new open-world skateboarding sandbox set in the city of San Vansterdam.
The game’s early performance is especially notable given its “Mixed” user rating on Steam — a score partly attributed to Steam Deck incompatibility, as Easy Anti-Cheat currently functions only on Windows. Despite this, skate. reached a peak of 134,901 concurrent players shortly after launch, according to SteamDB, and has maintained a steady daily active count between 50,000 and 80,000 players.
The Skate franchise first launched in 2007 under EA Black Box, earning acclaim for its analog stick-based “Flick-It” controls, which offered a more technical, realistic alternative to the arcade-style trick system of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. It was followed by Skate 2 (2009) and Skate 3 (2010), each refining the formula with deeper mechanics, improved physics, and expanded online features.
Despite strong fan demand, the series went dormant after Skate 3, which over time achieved cult status thanks to its popularity among streamers, glitch hunters, and modders. Viral clips and community content helped keep it relevant for years, eventually prompting Microsoft to add it to the Xbox backward compatibility program in 2016. After a decade of silence, EA officially confirmed the franchise’s return in 2020 with the announcement of skate., now developed by EA’s newly established studio Full Circle.
The resurgence of Skate also comes during a broader revival of the skateboarding game genre. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 — a modern remake of the early 2000s classics — launched in July 2025, following the commercial success of THPS 1 + 2 Remastered. Indie titles like Session: Skate Sim and Skater XL have also helped reinvigorate the scene, offering physics-heavy, sim-style alternatives that emphasize realism and user-generated content.
