The Outlast Trials Season 7 and October 2026 Comeback

Season 7, titled Project Boneyard, launched July 14, 2026 as a free update on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. It added a new trial environment, Prison Farm, themed around a prison riot and the corrections system, and it brought back Sergeant Leland Coyle, the former sheriff, as the headliner. The new main Trial is Locksock the Warden, whose goal is to kill the Warden in exchange for freedom. Two new MK-Challenges came with it: Bribe the Judges and Cancel the Broadcast. The update also reworked Escalation and Invasion, ran a Blood Drive community event, and ran Twitch Drops from July 14 at 10 AM ET to August 25 at 9:59 AM ET, on the official patch notes dates.

The update also added a new enemy, The Biter. The Biter is an Ex-Pop, not a Prime Asset, and that distinction matters: Prime Assets are the boss-level enemies who hold dominion over a themed environment, and The Biter is not one of them. The official patch notes describe The Biter as a former forced-labour prisoner who self-harmed in protest, had his arms removed, and was then repaired by Murkoff doctors with a mechanical forced jaw for biting, a chained neck, and reinforced legs that give unusual speed. At launch, The Biter appeared only in Locksock the Warden, Bribe the Judges, and Cancel the Broadcast, the three Boneyard trials.

Season 7.1 is dated September 8, 2026 in one secondary guide, and that is all that was verified at check time: a name and a date. Its new trials, enemies, and mechanics were not verified, so this guide does not describe them. If you see a Season 7.1 content list elsewhere, check whether it cites an official patch note before trusting it, because this guide could not.

The surge began with price, not content. From October 1, the Steam autumn sale cut the game by 90% to $3.99, and the player count climbed through the week. Coverage on October 5 reported a stage peak of 94,507 concurrent players. The discount then ran to its end on October 8, and on that day the count reached 147,955 concurrent players on SteamDB figures, breaking the previous record of 36,689 set at the Early Access launch in May 2023, a record that had stood for more than three years. Do not quote 94,507 as the final peak: that was a mid-surge figure from October

5. The final peak is 147,955 on October

8. One tracker, govzalla, shows a different all-time peak of 143,195, but this guide uses the SteamDB figure, because SteamDB is the specified source for the peak, and the difference, likely sampling or time-zone method, was not verified.

Season 7.2 arrived in October 2026 with the Steam news title Geister Limited-Time Event, Community Event, MK-Challenges and More. The Geister limited-time event returned: Program Geister, a convergent hallucination therapy experiment whose side objective is collecting biohazard samples, with a reward bonus, a new Geister Catalog, and the 2025 Geister Catalog returning to the Murkoff store at the same time. The event catalog ends December 8, 2026 at 10 AM ET, and unused event tokens expire then, so if you are playing Geister content, spend the tokens before that date rather than saving them.

Season 7.2 also added a community event, Escape the Facility, in which players help Amelia and collect Escape Intel blueprints and carry them out of trials, unlocking rewards in stages, and two new MK-Challenges: Compel the Children in Phase 1 and Sanitize the Factory in Phase 2, both playable in Genesis. It also retuned the Escalation Therapy difficulty curve: Tier 1 covers trials 1 to 20, Tier 2 covers trials 21 to 30, and Tier 3 starts at trial 31 as the endgame, with a new permanent Variator called Breaking Point from trial 31 onward. A Favorites feature and a Black Market Sale were also included, but their details were not expanded in the official news post, so this guide does not expand them either.

On October 27, 2026, the game launched digitally on Nintendo Switch 2 through the eShop at $39.99, including Season 7.2 content. That made Switch 2 the sixth platform family, joining PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, and it landed days before Halloween, inside the same window as the Steam Scream Fest discount. Red Barrels own launch post said players can team up with friends across all platforms with cross-play. As with our beginner guide, this guide reports that launch-post wording, because pairwise confirmation on official support pages was not found at check time. Reports also say the game requires an internet connection at all times, including in solo play, and that Switch 2 online play needs a Nintendo Switch Online membership, but those two points are secondary-source reports, not official store-page confirmations at check time, so they are stated here at that level.

The honest summary of the comeback is that no single item on that table explains it. Boneyard gave returning players a reason to come back in July. The 90% discount gave new players a reason to try in October. Geister gave everyone a reason to keep playing through Halloween. Switch 2 gave a new platform a reason to start. If you are joining now, the practical advice is simple: buy before the 70% discount ends on November 2 if the sale price matters to you, spend Geister tokens before December 8, and start with Genesis, because that is the core path every other mode builds on.

A free update launched July 14, 2026, adding the Prison Farm environment, the Locksock the Warden main Trial, the Bribe the Judges and Cancel the Broadcast MK-Challenges, and the new enemy The Biter, who is an Ex-Pop, not a Prime Asset.

A 90% Steam autumn sale to $3.99, running until October 8,

2026. The peak reached 147,955 concurrent players on October 8, on SteamDB figures, breaking the May 2023 record of 36,689.

At check time on November 1, 2026, yes, as a limited-time event. Its event catalog ends December 8, 2026 at 10 AM ET, and unused event tokens expire then.

October 27, 2026, digitally through the eShop at $39.99, including Season 7.2 content.

It was live at check time on November 1, 2026, as a 70% Steam Scream Fest discount ending November 2, 2026 at 1 PM ET. After that date, check the store page, because the sale price no longer applies.