- Release date: Tuesday 22 September 2026, unlocking at 17:00 UTC — 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern, 6pm UK, 7pm Central Europe.
- Platforms: PC (Steam), PS4 and PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.
- Price: one edition only — $24.99 / €24.99 / £22.49, discounted 20% to $19.99 / €19.99 / £17.99 until launch day.
- Pre-order bonus: a personal sauna outside your house and an exclusive outfit — spelled out on the console listings, not on Steam.
- There is a free demo on Steam right now, so you can try it before the discount expires.
The Graveyard Keeper 2 release date is Tuesday 22 September 2026, and the PlayStation Store countdown puts the unlock at 17:00 UTC. Lazy Bear Games’ sequel to the 2018 medieval cemetery sim ships in a single edition at $24.99, with a 20% pre-purchase discount that ends the moment it launches. There is no Deluxe, no Ultimate and no season pass — the only decision is whether you buy before or after Tuesday.
Rayyan covers console and PC gaming wallets for Virtwave, with deep specialism in PlayStation Network, Xbox, Razer Gold and Steam. He has been writing about digital gaming commerce since 2020.
Graveyard Keeper 2 release date and unlock time
| Platform | Release date | Stated unlock time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| PC — Steam | 22 September 2026 | Steam shows a countdown, no clock time | Windows only; no macOS or Linux build listed |
| PS4 and PS5 | 22 September 2026 | 17:00 UTC (listed as 7:00 PM GMT+2) | Cross-buy: one purchase covers both |
| Xbox One and Series X|S | 22 September 2026 | Not stated on the listing | Sold as a “Pre-Order Bundle” until launch |
| Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 | 22 September 2026 | Not stated on the listing | 1 GB download on both; pre-order bonus sold as a separate free item |
What time it unlocks where you are
Only one storefront gave us an actual clock. When we opened the US PlayStation Store listing on 19 September, its pre-order panel showed the unlock as 22/09/2026 07:00 PM GMT+2 — that is 17:00 UTC. Steam and Xbox show only a countdown, and Nintendo shows only the date. 17:00 UTC is also the slot Steam uses for most launches (10am Pacific), so the two line up, but treat anything other than the PlayStation figure as an expectation rather than a promise.
| Where | Local time | Day |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles (PDT) | 10:00 | Tue 22 Sep |
| New York (EDT) | 13:00 | Tue 22 Sep |
| London (BST) | 18:00 | Tue 22 Sep |
| Berlin / Warsaw / Paris (CEST) | 19:00 | Tue 22 Sep |
| Dubai (GST) | 21:00 | Tue 22 Sep |
| New Delhi (IST) | 22:30 | Tue 22 Sep |
| Tokyo (JST) | 02:00 | Wed 23 Sep |
| Sydney (AEST) | 03:00 | Wed 23 Sep |
Graveyard Keeper 2 price and editions: there is only one
This is the unusual part, and it is good news. We checked all four storefronts on 19 September and none of them sells a Deluxe, Ultimate, Collector’s or Gold edition. There is the game, and there is a pre-order bonus that is bundled free with the game before launch. Nothing is held back behind a more expensive SKU, and there is no season pass announced.
| Storefront | List price | Pre-order price | Bonus included? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam (US) | $24.99 | $19.99 (−20%) | Not mentioned on the page |
| Steam (UK) | £22.49 | £17.99 (−20%) | Not mentioned on the page |
| Steam (eurozone) | €24.99 | €19.99 (−20%) | Not mentioned on the page |
| Steam (Poland) | 99,00 zł | 79,20 zł (−20%) | Not mentioned on the page |
| Xbox (US) — Pre-Order Bundle | $24.99 | $19.99 (−$5.00) | Yes — sauna and outfit |
| Nintendo eShop (US) | Listed at $19.99 when we checked | Same | Yes — as a separate free pre-order item |
| PlayStation Store (US) | Price not shown to signed-out visitors | — | Yes — described on the listing |
Why the pre-purchase discount matters more than usual
On most games a launch discount is a nudge. Here it is the whole decision, because there is no cheaper edition to drop down to and no pricier one to regret. Buy on Monday and you pay $19.99 and get the sauna and the outfit; buy on Wednesday and you pay $24.99 and get neither. That is a 25% swing plus two pieces of content, decided entirely by which side of Tuesday afternoon you are on.
What the Graveyard Keeper 2 pre-order bonus contains
“A personal sauna outside the player’s house”
— PlayStation Store listing, Graveyard Keeper 2 pre-order bonus, read 19 September 2026
- A sauna building placed outside your house — a permanent structure in the world, not a consumable.
- An exclusive outfit for the player character, themed on the Grand Inquisitor role you play in the sequel.
- Both are bundled free with any pre-order; neither has been offered for sale separately.
- On Nintendo the bonus is listed as its own store item that requires the base game, so it appears twice in your basket — that is expected, and it is $0.
Steam never mentions the bonus — what we found
We read the Steam store page end to end on 19 September and searched its text for “sauna”, “outfit” and “pre-order bonus”. None of them appear anywhere on it — the Steam pre-purchase block advertises the 20% discount and nothing else, while the Xbox, Nintendo and PlayStation listings all describe the sauna and the outfit explicitly. We have not seen tinyBuild say the bonus is console-only, so the likeliest explanation is that Steam’s page simply does not advertise it. If the bonus is the reason you are buying, the console listings are the ones that commit to it in writing.
Download size and PC requirements
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 x64 or higher | Windows 10 x64 or higher |
| Processor | Intel Core i3 (13 gen) or similar | Intel Core i5 (13 gen) or similar |
| Memory | 6 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics | GeForce GTX 1650 or similar | GeForce RTX 3060 or similar |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 4 GB available space | 4 GB available space |
Those are modest numbers by 2026 standards — a GTX 1650 is a 2019 budget card and 4 GB of storage is smaller than most patches. The one oddity is the CPU line: “Intel Core i3 (13 gen)” is a much newer part than the GPU beside it, which usually means the requirement is really about instruction-set support rather than raw speed. If your machine runs anything from the last five years, you are almost certainly fine.
Console download sizes
Nintendo lists 1 GB on both Switch and Switch 2 — genuinely tiny, and comfortably inside the internal storage of a stock Switch. Microsoft and Sony had not published a size on their listings when we checked. Given 4 GB on PC and 1 GB on Switch, you can safely assume the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S downloads sit in the same range rather than the 100 GB-plus territory of this autumn’s shooters.
Do you need to play the first Graveyard Keeper?
No. The sequel recasts you as the Grand Inquisitor with a new town to rebuild, and the marketing pitches it as a starting point rather than a continuation. That said, the original from 2018 is the cheapest possible way to find out whether the loop suits you, and it is frequently discounted to a few dollars. Its three story DLCs — Stranger Sins, Game of Crone and Better Save Soul — are each self-contained additions to the first game and do not carry over.
Buying a Graveyard Keeper 2 Steam key
A pre-order key behaves exactly like any other Steam key: you activate it now, the game sits in your library marked as unreleased, and it becomes playable the moment the clock runs out. You do not need to be online at 17:00 UTC, and you do not need to do anything on launch day.
- Buy the key and check your inboxThe code is emailed within seconds of payment and is also stored in your Virtwave account, so you do not have to go hunting through email later.
- Open Steam and choose Activate a Product on SteamIt lives under the Games menu in the desktop client, and on the web under Add a Game in the bottom-left of the library.
- Paste the code exactly as sentSteam keys are five groups of five characters. Copy and paste rather than typing — a mistyped character reads as an invalid key, not a typo.
- Leave it alone until TuesdayThe game appears in your library with a release countdown. If a pre-load becomes available, Steam downloads it automatically when the client is open.
Pre-order key vs storefront pre-purchase
Our honest read while the promotion is running: Steam’s own 20% pre-purchase is hard to beat on price, and it is the safest route if the sauna and outfit matter to you on PC. A key makes more sense after Tuesday, when list price snaps back to $24.99 and the promotion is gone. If you are activating a key from anywhere, our guide to activating a game on Steam with a product key covers the failure cases, and gift card regions and country locks explained The next simulation launch worth a calendar entry is Frontier’s: our Planet Zoo 2 release date, unlock time and editions guide has the 13 October 14:00 UTC stamp, both editions and the full PC requirements.
Graveyard Keeper 2 FAQs
What time does Graveyard Keeper 2 come out?
Is there a Graveyard Keeper 2 Deluxe or Ultimate edition?
Is Graveyard Keeper 2 on Game Pass or PS Plus?
Do I need to play Graveyard Keeper 1 first?
Is there a Graveyard Keeper 2 demo?
Can I refund a Graveyard Keeper 2 pre-purchase?
How big is the Graveyard Keeper 2 download?
Which platform should you buy Graveyard Keeper 2 on?
PC (Steam)
The default choice. It has the free demo, the clearest refund rules and the same 20% discount as everywhere else. The only wrinkle is that the sauna and outfit bonus is not advertised on the Steam page.
- Free demo available now
- Pre-purchase refundable any time before release
- Modest specs — GTX 1650 minimum, 4 GB storage
- Pre-order bonus not mentioned on the store page
- Windows only; no macOS or Linux build
Nintendo Switch / Switch 2
A 1 GB download of a slow-burn management sim is close to the ideal Switch purchase, and the pre-order bonus is listed explicitly. Performance on the original Switch is the unknown, and the demo is not available here to check it.
- Only 1 GB
- Runs on both Switch and Switch 2
- Bonus clearly listed
- No demo to test performance first
- Original Switch performance unconfirmed
PlayStation 4 / PS5
The only storefront that committed to an actual unlock time, and one purchase covers PS4 and PS5. Sony does not show the price to signed-out visitors, so you have to log in to compare it.
- Cross-buy across PS4 and PS5
- Unlock time published
- Pre-order bonus described in full
- Price hidden until you sign in
- No demo on PlayStation
Xbox One / Series X|S
Sold as a Pre-Order Bundle that names the sauna and the outfit outright, at the same $19.99. Not on Game Pass, no published download size, and no demo — so it is the least informative listing of the four, at the same price.
- Bonus contents stated in the bundle
- Runs on Xbox One as well as Series X|S
- Same $19.99 pre-order price
- Not on Game Pass at launch
- No download size published
- No demo
Sources & how we checked this
Every figure above was read directly from the publisher or storefront on 19 September 2026. Prices were checked in USD, GBP, EUR and PLN through each store’s own regional pricing, and in the Virtwave store with the country set to Poland. Where a storefront did not publish something — an unlock time, a download size, a signed-out price — we have said so rather than filled the gap.
- Graveyard Keeper 2 on Steam — release date, pre-purchase promotion, prices, system requirements, developer and publisher.
- Graveyard Keeper 2 Demo on Steam — confirmation the demo is live.
- Graveyard Keeper 2 on the PlayStation Store — the 17:00 UTC unlock time, the pre-order bonus description and PS4/PS5 cross-buy.
- Graveyard Keeper 2 Pre-Order Bundle on Xbox — the $24.99 list price, the $19.99 pre-order price and the bundle contents.
- Graveyard Keeper 2 on Nintendo.com and its pre-order bonus listing — the 1 GB download size and Switch 2 support.
- Steam Refund Policy — the rule that a pre-purchase can be refunded at any time before release.
- Graveyard Keeper (2018) on Steam — release date and pricing for the original.
We could not find a GOG or Epic Games Store listing for the sequel on 19 September; if one appears we will add it here. How we work is set out in our editorial policy. Related reading: how to refund a game on Steam and Steam sale dates for 2026, if you would rather wait for a discount than pre-order.
