Russian Counter Strike analog about “SVO” fails on the largest gaming platform
9 November 04:16
The video game about the invasion of Ukraine, Squad 22: ZOV, created with the support of the Russian Ministry of Defense, has not attracted any interest from the audience of the largest international platform Steam. According to the SteamDB service, no more than five people play the game every day, "Komersant Ukrainian" writes, citing Russian propaganda media.
“Squad 22: ZOV” is the first Russian video game about the invasion of Ukraine. It was released at the end of January 2025 on the VK Play platform and is a real-time strategy game where the player controls a detachment of Russian soldiers participating in the storming of Mariupol, Melitopol, and other Ukrainian cities. The Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers in the game are presented in a propagandistic way – for example, they use drugs “for courage” before the battle.
on May 28, the game appeared on the Steam platform owned by the American company Valve. However, it soon became clear that foreign users were not impressed with the project. The peak interest was observed on May 29, when the game was launched simultaneously by 50 people. After that, the activity dropped sharply: from late June to mid-July, no more than five people played Squad 22 daily, and from September, no more than three. As of November 7, there was only one user in the game.
The game was developed by the Russian SPN Studio, headed by Alexander Tolkach, the son of the former Russian ambassador to Hungary. Previously, he was the director of public relations at the Donbas Fuel and Energy Company. According to Tolkach, the idea for the project came from the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, but a private investor provided the funding.
After the release of Squad 22 on Steam, Tolkach claimed that the project had allegedly “successfully launched in the United States” and that more than half of its revenue came from that country. The game’s consultant, Vladislav Golovin, the head of the Unarmy and a participant in the invasion of Ukraine, called Squad 22 a competitor to the famous shooter Counter Strike. However, statistics show the opposite: while only a few people play the Russian game, Counter Strike 2 gathers about 1.5 million users every day.
Despite the failure of the project, SPN Studio continues to develop a new war game called Homeland is Waiting. According to the developers, it will be a “story-driven tactical RPG” with a demo release scheduled for 2026.
