Waterpark Simulator Holds Its $12.99 Price for Xbox, PS5 Debut

CayPlay Studios will launch Waterpark Simulator’s full 1.0 version on July 31, 2026, at the same $12.99 price it has charged all through Early Access. The Los Angeles studio had planned to raise that price to $19.99, the simulator genre’s standard move at full release, then reversed course. The same day also marks the game’s first appearance on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Most of the attention on that reversal has gone to the PC players who built the game’s Early Access following. Xbox and PlayStation owners are the ones who actually spent most of the past year with no official word a console version was coming at all, while copycat listings tried to fill the gap.

One Price, Three Platforms, One Day

CayPlay confirmed the release plan through its verified account on X, which confirmed the same day launch across Steam, Xbox and PS5 for July 31. Steam owners move straight into the finished build with their progress intact. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S owners get the whole game on day one, with no Early Access period behind them at all.

The 1.0 patch itself is modest by design, according to the studio’s own rundown:

• New pool types added across the park building tools
• Controller support built specifically for the console releases
• Performance improvements across all three platforms
• A free Duck Slide and the game’s soundtrack for everyone who bought in during Early Access

The soundtrack becomes a separate purchase for anyone buying in from July 31 onward. The Duck Slide does not return once Early Access supporters are the only owners of it.

Why CayPlay Skipped the Price Hike

Simulator games typically launch Early Access around $10 to $15, then jump to $20 or $30 at 1.0. CayPlay’s original plan followed that pattern exactly: raise Waterpark Simulator from $12.99 to $19.99, a price the studio still calls fair for the game’s size and scope. Then the studio detailed the reversal in a Steam post rather than a press release.

Because of you all, Waterpark Simulator has already funded itself. We’re stable, and we believe if we continue focusing on making an amazing game, the full release on July 31st will support the studio naturally.

CayPlay Studios wrote in its 1.0 announcement.

The studio pointed to its own math first. Early Access sales had already covered development, so a price jump was not needed to keep the lights on. It also named the wider economy as a factor, and repeated a founding line about keeping Waterpark Simulator accessible rather than raising prices whenever it can.

What Happened to Waterpark Simulator on Consoles?

For most of the past year, CayPlay gave no official confirmation that Waterpark Simulator was coming to consoles at all. A September 2025 report even flagged a copycat listing on PlayStation’s store using a nearly identical name from a different publisher. That uncertainty ends July 31, with simultaneous PS5 and Xbox Series X|S releases.

Gaming site Gamepressure warned players about copycat listings using a near identical name back in September 2025, when CayPlay had only run a survey asking which consoles players wanted, with nothing committed. The imitation, published under an unrelated developer name, sat on PlayStation’s storefront trading on the confusion while the real game stayed Steam only.

That gap has since closed. PlayStation’s own store now lists the game only as a pre release concept page, crediting CayPlay Studios directly rather than the imitator. Xbox has no equivalent public storefront listing yet, but CayPlay’s X post and a release date trailer both name Xbox Series X|S alongside PS5 for July 31.

The players who shaped the price decision were never the ones asking about consoles. PC owners spent roughly eleven months inside Early Access, filing bug reports and shaping the game update after update, which is what CayPlay points to when it says the community funded the game. Console buyers get the identical $12.99 build on day one, without having waited out a single patch.

Every platform lands on the same build, the same day, at the same price. Only one of the three spent most of the past year unsure it was invited at all.

Most Early Access Games Never Get This Far

Reaching 1.0 at all puts Waterpark Simulator ahead of most Early Access games before the pricing question even comes up. A widely cited study from research firm EEDAR, reported by PC Gamer, found just 25 percent of Early Access titles ever launch, a figure gaming outlets have kept citing for over a decade because newer counts still land in the same range. That puts full release, on any pricing terms, out of reach for roughly three of every four games that start the same journey Waterpark Simulator just finished.

CayPlay’s numbers explain why the studio felt comfortable walking away from a price increase. Waterpark Simulator has drawn more than 7,400 Steam reviews at a 96% approval rate, enough to earn the “Overwhelmingly Positive” badge, while third party tracking puts the fuller review count above 10,440 as of June 2026. That same tracking estimates 223,600 copies sold on Steam and roughly $1.9 million in gross revenue, a number the studio says already cleared its costs before 1.0 even shipped.

Cunningham’s Audience Still Funds the Studio

CayPlay exists because of a gap its cofounder spotted in his own audience data. Caylus Cunningham, who posts online as Caylus and as Infinite, had built hundreds of millions of views across simulator and waterslide content, with no waterpark management game to point that audience toward. Cofounder Travis Richardson put the logic plainly in the studio’s press kit, which traced the studio’s origin back to Cunningham’s YouTube audience: “Rather than waiting for someone else to make it, the CayPlay team decided to build it themselves.”

Cunningham ranked second on YouTube’s year end creator list for 2025, behind only MrBeast, a reach CayPlay leaned on for the original launch. CaseOh, a gaming YouTuber and streamer, appears as a playable NPC in the 1.0 release trailer, the kind of casting choice that keeps the game’s creator economy roots visible.

CayPlay said the game sold 250,000 copies in its first month of Early Access alone, more than third party trackers’ more recent estimate of 223,600 copies total, a gap the studio has not addressed publicly. The studio also points to a peak of 9,103 concurrent Steam players on September 7, 2025, as proof the audience showed up fast.

CayPlay says the work will not stop at 1.0, only slow down. “We don’t want 1.0 to be the end of the game development,” the studio wrote in a post that also promised more content once 1.0 ships. “Although we do want to work on new projects, we will still create more content after 1.0.”

A free demo CayPlay released ahead of Early Access is still live on Steam, the last no cost way to test the park before July 31 makes the $12.99 build permanent across Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Waterpark Simulator Coming to Nintendo Switch?

CayPlay has not confirmed a Nintendo Switch version. A September 2025 report said the studio was surveying player interest across consoles, but every confirmation since, including the July 2026 announcements, names only Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Are Other Waterpark Simulator Listings on PlayStation Legitimate?

No confirmed version outside CayPlay Studios exists. A listing with a nearly identical name from a different publisher circulated on PlayStation’s store in 2025 while CayPlay’s own console plans were still unofficial. CayPlay is the only developer and publisher behind the real game, now listed directly on PlayStation’s store.

How Long Was Waterpark Simulator in Early Access?

About eleven months. The game entered Early Access on Steam on August 22, 2025, and reaches its 1.0 version on July 31, 2026, without the $12.99 price ever changing in between.