Big Walk Hosting: Who Keeps the Save & Progress

How hosting works

The host starts first and automatically keeps the save — there is no separate save management and no host migration. The official FAQ's hosting answer is the source for the rules below.

1. Pick one host and stay with them: whoever starts the world owns its progress.
2. The host creates or loads the world and enters it before anyone else joins — friends appear from the platform's friends list or with a join code.
3. When the host stops the session, everyone else is disconnected; nothing is lost, but the walk pauses.
4. To continue later, the same host opens the same save and the group joins again.

What if someone else hosts?

You will not pick up the same journey. Each host's save is its own world, which is why the choice of host matters more than the choice of evening. This also applies after the ending: the purple post-game challenges and the route to the true ending stay in the host world that reached it — reload that same world, not a fresh one.

The player-count setting is a minimum, not a cap

Each session can be set to 2, 3 or 4+ players when the host starts it. That changes how the world is tuned — it does not stop extra friends from joining. If only some of your group can stay for the whole session, pick the lower player-count setting before you start; the full player rules are on the solo and player-count page.

The pre-session checklist

Run through these four before the host presses start — they prevent the most common failed first sessions.