Beetleball Demo History

Beetleball’s public demo lived on Steam from 21 January 2026 until 31 August 2026 at 9pm PDT. Steam Early Access replaced it on 3 September 2026. App ID 2776270. Developer and publisher: Bugfight Studio. This page is the demo timeline so you can tell which systems were public tests and which toys arrived on launch day. It is not a recap of the paid build. Atlas, Bee, Museum, passives, quests, hat slots, proximity voice, and the 48-hour shop code live on Early Access launch. The parent index is the updates hub.

Steam’s latest news post is still BEETLEBALL IS OUT NOW! There is no post-launch patch on this wiki because Bugfight has not posted one. Do not invent a 4 September hotfix from a YouTube thumbnail. Reviews at time of writing sit at Very Positive: 95% of 93. The store lists 39 Steam achievements. Those numbers describe reception, not a balance pass.

The sport itself never flipped. You always play blue versus red. Only a golden dungball scores, and gold is five dung levels. Ranked, unranked, and custom all used that rule in the demo and still use it now.

21 January 2026 — demo on Steam

The demo app went live on Steam on 21 January 2026. It was free. It was the public classroom for queues, custom lobbies, and the 3D picnic maps. If you skipped it, you did not miss a second campaign. You missed months of Bugfight printing quality-of-life in public.

Queue ranked, unranked, and custom. Drill controls the same way veterans did: WASD, grab, headbutt or throw, Q on-ball versus off-ball. There is still no ball-cam. Custom hosts already had a reason to exist; later patches made those lobbies actually start.

Beetleball Demo Announcement Trailer

29 January 2026 — Demo Update #2

Eight days later Bugfight shipped Demo Update #2. Player-facing list from that post:

• 1v1 ranked as a limited-time mode to test how queue times moved before anything became permanent
• Lab maps in custom lobbies
• Join a custom lobby while you are still in queue
• Disable team outlines
• Distance blur, default on
• AFK auto kick

That patch is why veterans talk about outlines and blur as if they were always options. They were not. They are still the toggles you should check before you blame a lost gold on a beetle. Lab layouts belong in custom lobbies, not in a mystery playlist. If you want to sit in ranked queue and still host a friend, join-while-queueing is the reason.

Treat 1v1 ranked as history unless the live client still shows the LTM. This page will not pretend it is a forever ladder. Demo notes also mentioned a default matchmaking Elo around 300 and a less punishing high-rank loss curve; those were queue experiments, not a promise that Early Access Elo starts at the same number.

9 February 2026 — Steam PvP Fest

PvP Fest ran a 5v5 ranked limited-time mode. Placement cosmetics, not shop SKUs:

• Top 1000 at the end of the event: bandana
• Top 100: boxing gloves

Those are not shop codes. They are not Beetle Eggs. If a thumbnail calls them secret hats, it is mixing an event track with the shop. The shop itself did not exist yet; that arrives at Next Fest.

5v5 was an LTM. Early Access still lists ranked, unranked, custom, quick play, and alternate modes up to 6v6. Do not walk into a 3v3 ranked lobby expecting PvP Fest rules.

23 February 2026 — Next Fest, eggs, and the shop

Next Fest (23 February 2026) is the spine of the current cosmetic loop. Bugfight added:

• Beetle Eggs (Common through Mythical)
• XP and profile levels
• Beetle Bucks
• A main-menu shop
• Snowman competitive map
• Cosmetics: goal effects, wing trails, class skins (including mythical iridescent paints), 27+ mustaches, emotes, stickers, and an emote/sticker wheel
• Colourblind mode, extra map music, a vertical ball indicator, and in-match customisation

Play still pays Bucks. Bucks still buy eggs. Eggs still roll hats. That loop survived into Early Access. Full shop explanation: cosmetics shop. ILOVEBEETLEBALL is a launch shop string, not a demo string. It belongs on codes and the launch recap.

March 2026 — hats, ready-up, force start

The March cosmetics and QoL drop is why custom lobbies stopped waiting forever:

• About 80 new hats, explicitly not more mustaches
• A rainbow mustache in the facial-hair pile
• 75% majority ready
• A host force start button in the lobby panel

Force start and 75% ready are why a six-stack can play when one beetle is AFK in the stump. Use them in custom lobbies. Hats still do not change Q. The rainbow mustache sits with the other mustaches; it is not a ranked title and it is not a shop code.

April 2026 — Longhorn update

The Longhorn Beetle Update (Steam news 3 April 2026) added Longhorn with a grappling hook, plus camera and chat polish veterans still use:

• Recenter camera
• Free look
• Invert X and invert Y
• Auto rotate camera
• Chat target All / Team / Party, with backslash as the documented prefix
• 1.5x ranked currency to offset queue time

Longhorn is not a 3 September launch class. Atlas and Bee are. Longhorn arrived in the April demo and is part of the live 14+ roster. Role context: beetles hub. Camera invert, free look, and recenter belong next to the bind sheet on controls.

The 1.5x ranked Bucks multiplier is the last published ranked currency bump on this wiki. Do not invent a launch-week 2x because queues felt long on 3 September.

31 August 2026 — demo closed

On 30 August 2026 Bugfight posted Demo Closing Soon!: the demo would shut on 31 August 2026 at 9pm PDT because the full Early Access build was going live on 3 September. That shutdown happened. The demo is not a current download. Demo progress, cosmetics, and quest state are not documented here as a guaranteed carryover. If your hats or level survived, confirm them in the paid client instead of arguing from this paragraph.

3 September 2026 — Early Access, then silence

Early Access launched 3 September 2026. Launch added Atlas Beetle, Bee Beetle, Museum, passives, quests, proximity voice, hat slots, profile pictures, unlockable classes, and more shop cosmetics. The same Steam post printed ILOVEBEETLEBALL for 10 eggs, 48 hours only. Feature list and day-one order: launch notes.

As of this page, the latest Steam news is still that launch post. There is no later patch child under updates. When Bugfight posts one, this wiki should add a dated page instead of rewriting the demo timeline.

If you installed after the demo died, you do not need to replay Next Fest. You do need this split: eggs, Snowman, Lab maps, 75% ready, force start, Longhorn, outlines, blur, and the ranked currency bump are demo inheritance. Atlas, Bee, Museum, passives, quests, voice, hat slots, and the launch code are 3 September toys. Play the paid app. Finish the tutorial. Then stop hunting a demo depot.