No Man's Sky is free to play again because it went so well last weekend

If you didn't get a chance to put No Man's Sky through its paces during its free to play event last weekend – or if you did and you want to do it all over again, no purchase required – developer Hello Games has announced its exploratory space sim is free to download and play right now for the next few days because it all proved so popular last time.

In its free weekend round two announcement, Hello Games says its first attempt “worked better than expected” and No Man's Sky “started the year with more players than we've EVER had at this time of year”, adding, “Our large and friendly community did us proud and jumped at the opportunity to welcome these new Travelers with open arms and show them the ropes.”

As before, No Man's Sky's free weekend is open to players on all platforms – Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC – and the latest festivities conclude on Monday, 26th February. Any progress made during the event will be carried over to the full game if you're convinced enough that you decide to make a purchase, and the previous 50 percent discount is still available across digital storefronts, meaning you can pick it up for around £ 19.99.

This second free weekend event follows last week's launch of No Man's Sky's Omega update, which added the likes of procedurally generated on-plant missions, the ability to captain imposing Dreadnought capital ships, a revised Atlas Path quest line, and a major overhaul for Expeditions – No Man's Sky's limited-time curated campaigns. And speaking of Expeditions, the game's 12th – titled Omega, appropriately enough – is currently live, meaning you'll be able to give it a go if you happen to hop on during the free weekend.

Hello Games ends its free weekend redux announcement saying it's got “big and ambitious updates for No Man's Sky planned this year.” And, of course, there's the far from small matter of its next project – the intriguing procedurally generated fantasy planet sim Light No Fire – which the studio unveiled at the end of last year.