It was the summer of the bean. If you spent any time on the internet in mid-2020, you remember the pastel-colored chaos. You remember the jellybeans in hot dog suits. You remember the absolute, soul-crushing betrayal of a teammate in Yellow Team. But when you look back, the timeline feels a bit blurry because of how much the game has changed since its debut. If you're wondering exactly when did fall guys come out, the answer is a bit more layered than just a single calendar date.
The original release happened on August 4, 2020.
Mediatonic, a British developer that had been around for years doing various projects, suddenly found themselves holding the biggest game on the planet. It launched simultaneously on PC via Steam and on PlayStation 4. Honestly, the timing was eerie. Much of the world was still stuck inside during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. People were tired of gritty shooters and stressful battle royales like Warzone. We needed something stupid. We needed to watch a bean fall off a spinning beam while wearing a pigeon outfit.
The Day the Servers Melted
When Fall Guys released, it didn't just "launch." It exploded. Devolver Digital, the publisher known for picking indie hits, probably knew they had a winner, but nobody predicted the sheer volume of players that would try to log in on day one.
I remember trying to get into a match that first Tuesday. It was a mess. The servers were basically screaming for mercy. Within the first 24 hours, the game had over 1.5 million players. By the end of the first week, it had sold 2 million copies on Steam alone. That doesn't even count the PlayStation users. You see, Sony had made a genius move: they included Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout as a "free" title for PlayStation Plus subscribers for the month of August.
It was a masterstroke of marketing.
Suddenly, every single person with a PS4 had the game. It became the most downloaded PS Plus game of all time. It beat out massive franchises like Call of Duty and Destiny. Think about that. A game about clumsy beans outshone the biggest shooters in history because it was accessible, funny, and—crucially—free to a massive installed base.
💡 You might also like: The Combat Hatchet Helldivers 2 Dilemma: Is It Actually Better Than the G-50?
The Long Wait for Xbox and Switch
While PC and PlayStation players were busy diving through hoops, a huge portion of the gaming community was left out in the cold. For nearly two years, the question shifted from "when did it come out" to "when is it coming out on my console?"
The porting process was notoriously slow.
Mediatonic was a relatively small studio at the time of launch. Then, things got complicated in a big way. In March 2021, Epic Games (the creators of Fortnite) bought Tonic Games Group, the parent company of Mediatonic. This changed everything. The resources were now there, but the game was being rebuilt to fit into the Epic ecosystem.
The "second" big release date you need to know is June 21, 2022.
This was the "Free for All" launch. This is when the game finally landed on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and the Epic Games Store. It also marked the transition to a free-to-play model. If you bought the game originally, you were a "Legacy" player. If you joined after June 2022, you were part of the new wave. This move saved the game's longevity, pushing it to 20 million players within 48 hours of the multi-platform launch.
How the Game Changed Since 2020
The game you play today isn't really the same game that launched in August 2020. Back then, there were only about 25 levels. You’d see See Saw and Slime Climb constantly. Now, the level pool is massive, though the developers have introduced "vaulting"—a controversial move where they rotate certain levels out of the game to keep things stable.
📖 Related: What Can You Get From Fishing Minecraft: Why It Is More Than Just Cod
- The Creative Era: In May 2023, the game evolved again with the Fall Guys Creative update. This allowed players to build their own rounds. It fundamentally shifted the game from a developer-curated experience to a community-driven one.
- The Epic Transition: Moving to the Epic Games Store meant leaving Steam for new buyers. If you already owned it on Steam, you kept it, but new PC players had to go through Epic.
- Seasons and Themes: We've had everything from futuristic neon themes to medieval castles and underwater adventures.
The social impact was weirdly huge, too. Remember the "Battle of the Brands"? Brands like Aim Lab, G2 Esports, and even MrBeast bid massive amounts of money to get their skins in the game, with the proceeds going to the charity SpecialEffect. It was a peak internet moment.
Technical Hurdles and Why Dates Mattered
If you’re a developer or a tech nerd, you know that launching a physics-based multiplayer game is a nightmare. Every bean’s interaction with every other bean has to be synced across 60 different clients. That's why the 2020 launch was so rocky. The netcode had to handle thousands of beans flopping around simultaneously.
When the game eventually hit the Switch in 2022, people were skeptical. How could the little handheld handle the chaos? The answer was: lower frame rates and some simplified textures. But it worked. The cross-play functionality meant a kid on a Switch could get shoved off a ledge by a pro on a high-end PC. It was glorious.
Why People Still Search for the Release Date
Honestly, it’s because the game had two "births."
There's the August 2020 indie darling birth and the June 2022 corporate juggernaut birth. If you ask a hardcore fan, they’ll talk about the "old days" of 2020 before the Crown Rank system was overhauled. If you ask a younger player, they might only know the version that appeared on their Xbox or Switch a couple of years later.
Actionable Steps for New and Returning Players
If you’re just now jumping back in because you realized how much time has passed since 2020, there are a few things you should actually do to catch up.
👉 See also: Free games free online: Why we're still obsessed with browser gaming in 2026
First, check your account linking. If you played on PS4 in 2020 and now want to play on Switch, you have to link everything to an Epic Games account. Do not skip this, or you'll lose your rare skins like the Gordon Freeman or Portal outfits that aren't easy to get anymore.
Second, dive into the Creative Construction levels. The community-made rounds are often way more difficult and inventive than the original 2020 levels. It’s where the high-skill players hang out now.
Third, pay attention to the "Fame Pass." The old "Season Pass" system changed. Now, they are shorter and more frequent. If you’re a casual player, don't feel pressured to grind the whole thing—the best rewards are usually tucked into the first 40 levels anyway.
Lastly, keep an eye on the "Vault" status. Mediatonic frequently brings back classic 2020 levels for limited-time events. If your favorite round like Hyperdrive Heroes is missing, it’s probably just in the vault waiting for a bug fix or a rotation. The game is a living, breathing thing now. It’s no longer just a static release from a few years ago. It’s a platform.
Whether you were there for the original August 4th chaos or joined during the Free-for-All expansion, the game remains one of the few truly "all-ages" successes in an industry dominated by grim violence. It’s just beans. And sometimes, that’s all we need.
Check your legacy rewards if you haven't logged in since the transition; you might have a "Legacy Pack" waiting for you with a free premium pass and some exclusive cosmetics that identify you as an OG bean from the 2020 era.