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Update #2: After the colossal jump last week, it was possible The Last of Us’ sales would slow down. But the hit HBO show – which has been renewed for a second season – is continuing to drive interest, pushing physical sales of The Last of Us: Part I and The Last of Us Remastered by a further 32 per cent and 27 per cent respectively in the UK. That’s on top of the increases outlined below.
It means that, as the show matures, the sales are not only holding – but also increasing. And remember, there’s still a PC version of The Last of Us: Part I to release.
Update #1: Now we finally have digital data, the news is even better for Sony and its new cross-media strategy. HBO’s hit show has had a colossal impact on sales of both The Last of Us: Part I and The Last of Us Remastered, with sales increasing 305 per cent and 337 per cent week-over-week respectively in the UK. That’s an absolutely gigantic jump, and it’s going to be fascinating to see whether the numbers will grow even further from here.
Original Story: Many are sceptical of Sony’s decision to take PlayStation’s biggest properties outside of its own ecosystem, but it turns out the suits with big salaries know exactly what they’re doing. HBO’s critically acclaimed adaptation of The Last of Us is, perhaps unsurprisingly, driving enormous interest around Naughty Dog’s survival horror series – and sales of The Last of Us: Part I and The Last of Us Remastered enjoyed a meteoric resurgence in the UK this week.
It should be noted that neither game lit up the charts – the PS5 remake finished in 20th place and its PS4 remaster in 32nd position – but it’s the scale of the increase that’s worth pointing out: 238 per cent and 322 per cent week-over-week, respectively. We will add this only accounts for physical sales, although we’d imagine digital is seeing a similar trend. Of note, we also observed a 95 per cent increase in traffic on our The Last of Us guide following the release of the show compared to the week prior – don’t you just love data?
It’ll be interesting to see whether this just a temporary bump, or if the popularity of the show drives long-tail interest in the game it’s inspired by. Either way, PlayStation’s executives will certainly see this as validation of their bold new strategy, which all seems to be going to plan perfectly so far.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 80
I think it's going to have a huge PC launch
"Why would Sony remake a game that's only ten years old and charge full price for it?"
Here's your answer.
@uptownsoul Wow, beaten by literally 16 seconds!
Maybe it's a coincidence
Can’t wait to watch the 2nd episode after the big 49ers vs Cowboys game tonight. Thank the heavens for TV recordings
@ShogunRok I think we all knew the answer. We were just saying that it's a greedy, sleazy move, that's all.
Once the price is right, I'll buy The Last of Us Part 1. I think I'm holding out for $30 or less.
Good to see increased sales although not a fan of the show so far
Did the second game sell well? I know it got ripped apart by alot of people but as a game it was still well made. Aside from the obvious discrepancies about the plot.
@Truegamer79 Yes.
I'm a little worried for the series going forward though. If the rumors of a third game are true will it continue from the first two, be a complete reboot or will they somehow try connecting it to the show?
@Truegamer79 vocal minority apart, I think the silent majority thoroughly enjoyed the second game. Personally, as someone who thought the original was clearly very good but not my flavour… the second was still not my flavour but was so layered, I acquired a taste. Storytelling on a level that 70’s cinema would be proud of.
@TheCollector316
Same here.
@colonelkilgore
I've always been more fond of darker more grim stories in movies and games so last of us 2 fit right in with my tastes. That was some dark stuff in that game!
@Truegamer79 yup, I actually had to take a break from gaming for a few days after plat’n part 2 in a concentrated 4 day period. I just needed to let it all settle… nothing had hit quite like that for me before.
It's depressing really. Showing success of mass market lowest common denominator catering only means the future of gaming will be ever more watered down and turned into a Hollywood arm piece with brand franchises, merch, and media. The Pokemonification of all gaming. If you like games and hate Hollywood, that's a terrible transformation to imagine.
Although I do wonder what the revenue in sales increases vs the cost of producing the show is. Profitability may not be as huge for the strategy as it looks at first. And ND "games" are basically movies to begin with... Not every game can see as successful a tv adaptation. Though in the case of Halo, the show is so bad it makes the bad game look good.
@Truegamer79 it sold very well at launch but sales did drop off a cliff shortly after, probably relating to the negative word of mouth. I'm assuming the huge launch sales were preorders and the hype machine but additional sales slowed once the mixed reception made the rounds.
For reference, cyberpunk PS4/x1 sold like crazy at launch purely on preorders and hype despite basically not even working so big launch sales reflect more about the marketing and expectations. Long tail sales and sequels say more about reception. This revitalization of 1 though ... Wonder what happens by part 3.
Glad to see it.
And as far as we know there were no instances of Sony forcing anyone to buy the game either.
@colonelkilgore I'm still letting that game settle. I played through it at launch. It blew me away, but I haven't been able to go back to it. Not for any negative reason, but because it got to me in a way no other game ever has.
Before Factions comes out I'll play through Part I and Part II together, but I need to prepare myself before I go back in again.
Great to see the series selling more copies( 2 phenomenal games & 2 examples of the best that Sony have made) back off the excellent tv series. A few people that I know have brought the game-just because of how much they loved the 1st episode.
@Shepherd_Tallon yeah, it’s the only game that has made me cry (I anxiously await the second 😎).
I’m hoping they release a PS5 remaster of Part 2 and then I’ll be more than happy to plat parts 1 and 2 again. I can not wait for Factions 2 (or whatever it ends up being called)… and I’ve never really liked multiplayer games.
this spike would apply to any game that has recently had a tv series/movie released. nothing of note here.
@colonelkilgore The original Factions was one of the very few PvP games that I have ever enjoyed playing. I loved it.
@colonelkilgore I think we will see a director cut next year for PS5 and pc of part 2 to release close to the next season.
So like Sony planned, game comes out, tv show happens. Boosts sales of game. Not surprised. Sure the number is what it is but I'm not fussed either way. Like another said nothing of note here. They didn't create PlayStation Productions for no reason they expected a sizeable audience watching it.
Also PS4s are cheaper so if Remastered then sure but Sony wants that Part 1 Remake money and PS5s.
I think the story/it being a has 'infected' but aren't the main focus either also adds to the appeal (if you want an emotional journey about the people and the event is just there) of it besides it's a big HBO show with the budget and effort put in.
Besides gamers that did care for it or are intrigued and couldn't get into the games are watching it (I don't care for the game but family members are watching it one that never played it, one that hated the first game and 'powered' through Part 2 to say they had experienced it and hated it). Either way the numbers aren't surprising newcomers or the gaming audience.
I myself am not interested to watch it or play my PS3 copy still on the shelf. But more power to the people enjoying it newcomers or gamers. I played one hour and didn't care. Too forced daughter death and everything else was 'fine' not my thing personally.
I think Horizon was more interesting of a world I just didn't like the gameplay so I think it will be a more interesting show.
I do think they translate well. I have no interest in them at all or any cinematic game/tv show like experience so heavy pass for me.
The others will likely succeed in their own way. Ratchet will have to be revived better as the movie/2016 game were trash but the series identity has a few issues.
GT movie while I hate GT7 (PSVR2 will be good but with it's boring campaign eh.....) I think the concept is good enough it isn't too generic as it's what many fans that go to esports to then real racing end up as even if an underdog story. Besides the dumb romance element (sure just like anime characters that have a harem is realistic but we watch it for how dumb it is, or know it's wish-fulfillment not because oh I can't wait to see this in live action..... it's fair fiction but still not because oh sure racing gamer gets girl and makes it big what an underdog story. Unless she is a spy then sure but if not then I can't wait to cringe at it.
I'd rather an R Racing Evolution movie if they were going to have a female racer, racing politics and so on with the race drivers wanting just fair rules in the sport even if it's story was an ambulance driver drives cars road/drag/rally and it 'works' even for how silly it is and then the fun motogp menu look and challenges everyone skips over). Come on Namco.
Grid Legends story was pretty enjoyable between races. Never experienced the TOCA ones much or NFS but still.
@Truegamer79 the original PS3 release and PS4 remaster of TLoU sold a combined total of around 24 million copies. TLoU 2 sold around 10 million copies. So, it sold well but nowhere near as well as it should have considering it was such a highly anticipated sequel to one one Sony’s biggest and most critically acclaimed games.
The last of us is a great standalone game it ends with Ellie saying that she wasn't alone before Joel & that's how it ends
@uptownsoul they didn't make part 1 , they made the last of us a standalone story
@TheCollector316 same but I won't pay more than £16 since I can buy the last of us remastered for that price
@Truegamer79 you can tell how well a game sells by the price it goes to on sale & the speed of the sale part 2 went on sale really quick for a big first party game ( was on sale for about £8 in the last sale) I'm betting it didn't sell aswell as they wanted it to
To be fair I think people always knew the remake would make money. That was never a question. However notice Remastered is selling more too. The more financially savvy move would have been to just jack up the price on Remastered back up once the show came out and let that one sell. Then they would have made even more money since they wouldn't have wasted money developing the remake. 😆
@Would_you_kindly
Yeah copys of last of us 2 are dirt cheap now. The remake of the original on PS5 is a whopping 70 dollars!
@Korgon to be fair to them they probably would have but I suspect they couldn't jack up the wholesale price on retailers and inventory was probably already sold at low rates, so a new sku was the only way to do an increase at retail. If there was only digital, I think your plan would have been what they went with.
@Would_you_kindly Jim directly said the sales weren't as great as fans think they were in reference to the sudden drop. I mean I can't stand the guy but when the CEO is like "wait guys, stop being apologists for us, our sales kinda sucked" it says something important.
Tough hzd was half price within 2 months or something and that remains a great game and not very divisive, so sale price doesn't always mean much either.
@NEStalgia
Yeah the retail bit is a good point. But then again retail game sales, while I'd love for them to stick around as long as possible, are becoming less and less impactful these days as data shows. So they may have still made more money off of jacking up the digital version of Remastered. I'd be interested to see a more in-depth breakdown of the physical/digital sales of the Remaster and the Remake once the show has fully run its course.
@NEStalgia Out of all things happening right now, I'd hardly call this depressing. We're still talking about video games, right?
@Would_you_kindly considering that it broke the record for the fastest selling first party game at the time, I'd say they were more than happy with initial sales. The fact that it went on sale quickly was probably due to an effort to maintain sales, knowing full well that all the negativity surrounding it would eventually affect sales.
The negativity re. part two was insane. I personally felt it unjustified and exceptionally toxic, and that pit me off playing it at all until late last year. When I did though, wow. Amazing.
@Korgon in terms of profits they likely make more on a $40 digital sale than a retail $70 sale, so yeah that's pretty much all profit.
But with tlou remastered on the plus library that's a harder sell for PS5 owners.
I'll probably not bother with the show as to much other stuff to watch. Love the games though, lt will be interesting to see where they would go with a part 3!
@naruball The rotting of video games into just another mass market media consumption product is depressing. Most other forms of "media" fell into that abyss 20 years ago but games retained their own identity and culture. Seems that won't remain for too long. If it's not an MMO f2p product is a merchandisable mixed media brand universe.
@pikki said it best above "Last Of Us is a fantastic piece of media"
That phrase makes me gag as much as "valued consumer".
@NEStalgia
I’m still not a fan that TLoU Part 1 exists. I knew this was the purpose along with hoping people would double or triple dip on the same game. I bought it on the PS3 and loved Factions. I’m moved to the PS4 soon after and because my friends and I still played Factions, we double dipped. Fast forward to now, we are always waiting on the next big PlayStation game. I bought Horizon and GoWR day one. I beaten both as well. I realize Forspoken is coming, but I’m waiting on the next first party studio game. Now, getting back to TLoU Part 1 existing. If it didn’t exist, there likely would be a new game somewhat close to release from that other San Diego Studio, and ND’s projects could be further along than what they are,but that’s not the case due to them wasting talent on that remake. That’s why I really hope the rumors that HZD Remake is happening are fake. It already takes longer than it ever has for games to release, and the best devs in the industry wasting their talent on these remakes isn’t making the wait for actual new games any easier.
I feel like the only game Sony has right now to look forward too is Spider-Man 2 and that’s probably not going to release until the end of the year 🫠.
Neither game breaking the top 20 hardly seems news worthy or meteoric, but I'm glad people are enjoying the show. Il be sure to check it out once all the episodes are out
@JaapV
The negatively around Pt2 had the opposite effect on me. I bought it around release as I, both didn't want the story to be spoiled (never was) and I am generally more interested in trying, and making my own mind up on, "polarising" media (eg. I also loved 'Death Stranding'). As a result, I managed to get the limited Amazon Steelbook for a game I ended up really liking. I don't think a games story has ever affected me like that.
@NEStalgia
Oh yeah I forgot it's on PS+. Well I bet they regret that move!😄
Although not 100% the case (I’m not sure the Halo show helped the game), this is a good marketing strategy. The Witcher, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, the Sonic movies… and actually if you think about it, there’s been synergy between TV/movies and gaming for a long time, although it has always been in reverse — a popular movie franchise being used as a springboard for a related game, such as all the Marvel and DC games, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc. Now we’re seeing some of the reverse can apply too.
My question with these figures is always how many units are we actually talking about here? I honestly have no idea how many copies bestsellers in the UK average. But like, a 322% increase sounds impressive but it's all relative! If it moved 100 copies last week and 322 copies this week... well that's a pretty small meteor!
@OmegaStriver Yeah, I really hope that one is wrong. Guerilla doesn't need to be working on that, the game is barely 6 years old, and the original game already looks and plays like a brand new game. Though it has some bugs they'll never fix. That's the peak of industry depravity if they think they need to redo that with a new glossy paint job for more money that won't even look particularly glossy.
I think there's a certain marketing angle to that namely for the retail space if it's true. I think it would have less to do with changing anything in the game (the game really doesn't need any "improving") and would be all about getting the game into a box that says PS5 so it doesn't look like an "old" PS4 game on shelves. Because digitally it would make no difference at all. It's a really cynical spin on the old PS Hits re-release program that would LOWER the price. Now they put old games in new boxes and "enhance" them and RAISE the price. Business is business, but at a certain point a look of nickel and diming customers has to backfire. Though...I suppose it never has for Nintendo...
I do worry/fear with this push on remaking/reselling everything as a "PS5" version if they intend to drop PS4 BC on PS6. That would be really depressing if so.
Fortunately I'm a PSVR fan so this is an exciting year for PS for me. Otherwise it would be pretty bleak in terms of exclusives. Forspoken looks like a miss, FFXVI....I'm very skeptical about, it might surprise me but it just looks like a dark, Westernized, on rails action game more than FF. And Spidey doesn't do much for me unless it shows something new and exciting. I don't really like Marvel, I do like Insomniac so I bought in on Spidey day 1 last time, but the game kind of disappointed me. The combat was repetitive and the open world pretty empty. Visually impressive and dense, but not much to do.
@RudeAnimat0r @Sakai That's a good point, the numbers in percentages are high, but it doesn't sound like it's really high in raw sales compared to the top sellers. Kind of like when Nintendo sites would boast in the headlines of how WiiU is selling 300% more after a game released, and the numbers were still in the triple digits... I'm sure this outsold WiiU at any given time, but the percentages don't mean so much without the raw numbers backing it.
@Pikki Haha, calling a video game a "piece of media." It's everything wrong with current gaming!
Of course this was the plan! And the remake is very impressive…Nintendo has been selling full priced straight WiiU ports for a generation and they had no tv series to capitalize on.
Disclaimer: I think it is a good thing to have WiiU games on Switch but those prices…yikes!
Ill admit I watched the first episode and fancied playing it again so I did dip and get the ps5 version and I'm playing it again.
I probably should use the guide to get all safe locations codes. So im one of them hahaha I did buy digitally though. Couldn't resist.
Have to admit though naughty dog doing wonders for those graphics. That water physics is something else and can't wait to see there actual ps5 project from the ground up. I'm hyped whatever it is
Hopefully all this interest will reach critical mass just in time for the announcement of the now standalone Factions MP game.
If the Push Square team can, I would love to know how TLOU P1/Remastered sales continue to be affected by the show's release. It'd be some cool data. Even if the next update would be after the season finale.
The remastered and part2 both into the ps4 top 10 best sellers on Amazon UK
Not surprised. Didn’t the same type of effect happen with Cyberpunk 2077 when Edgerunners released? The first two episodes are fantastic with added stuff that keeps it fresh. If you make a quality TV-tie/adaption, people will be itching for more.
I hope this won’t make every studio say “Oh I can turn my game into a tv series to drive up interest in past games” and then we get a bunch of crappy adaptations.
PlayStation hands down the BEST developers in the ENTIRE industry!!!
#sackjimryan 🤣
any concrete numbers? "phenomenal" 300% increase could be selling from 3000 to 9000 haha
Wonder if this had a similar effect when the Halo show aired. Or did that help contribute to the swift decline in Halo Infinite’s popularity with how bad the show supposedly was…
@uptownsoul @ShogunRok agreed and while i didn’t pay $70 for it on day 1, i got it for $50 on the PS store on sale and loved every second of it. One of the best games ever made and was worth every penny and my time on the replay. It was outstanding looking , helps that i have a LG C1 OLED to play it on, when it first launched on PS3 and PS4 my Tv wasn’t that high end. Throw in the audio on it and it’s a great experience, and truthfully if they did Part 2 on PS5, i would snag it in a hurry also.
@Porco Except The Last of Us is somehow good. A TV series that didn't actually come across as a good adaption would not do that. And bad adaptions are more common than good ones.
Do we have NUMBERS though or just percentages of an unknown number? I said it before, but whenever only percentages are thrown around it reminds me of when WiiU sales increased "300%" after a big game release, and the numbers were like 1000 up to 3000 units sold while PS4 was moving 40,000.
Hopefully you entitled gamers now understand why the game was rereleased again
I rather play older version and bit multi , no need to buy new version yet maybe if it will be half or less then half price
You just wait til they reboot this series in about 30-40 years. They wont even have actors: they'll have AI-generated CGI and the dialogue will be procedurally generated so it's new every time you watch it. They'll charge full price. We won't even know that the monsters look like they have cauliflower attached to their head because we'll have moved well past vegetables to know what cauliflower even is. We're done for.
@RudeAnimat0r
My thoughts exactly
A 322% increase sounds impressive but without tangible figures, its hard to see the impact.
Going from selling 1000 copies a week to 3220 copies for example
I guess the "ca$h grab" is working fairly well.
@colonelkilgore Jim Ryan Out!
@Truegamer79 the game an the show are the same story.
Where can I watch the last of us in UK? Don't think we have hbo.
@CutchuSlow sky, now TV or first episode is on YouTube
You make a TV show with great writing and acting, and is also true to its source material and it will be successful, the witcher showrunners shouldve took note ,thats done after season 4 ,im curious whether they will kill Joel off in season 2 ,are hbo really gonna kill off a main character in such a successful show ,maybe Tommy will bite the bullet or the golf club.
@tallythwack killing off popular characters in successful shows is kind of what HBO does best.
@CutchuSlow Sky Subscription or on the NOW TV app.
Think of all the 15-20 year olds who were 5-10 when this game came out. I don't know about you, but it's rare for people to play games from 5-10 years before your generation. And for a lot of people PS5 will be their first generation of console. Now with a show with hype behind it, it's not surprising to see people trying out this game for the first time in droves, who maybe wouldn't be inclined to go back to play a PS3/PS4 game. I think sales will stay fairly strong now for a while.
But on the other hand, I hope not, because I want it on sale tbh 😂
@tallythwack You've never seen Game of Thrones I presume?
I have to admit — After 3 episodes I’m considering a replay of Part I, and maybe even Part II. I probably won’t but the thought is crossing my mind and we still have 6 episodes left to brainwash me some more with an hour long advertisement for the game. 😅
To me this is the most depressing news this side of "Sony is selling PlayStation to Meta."
I logged onto Twitch last evening for the first time in likely two or three years, and I could not believe how many livestreams there were for The Last of Us. It was way, way higher than I would’ve ever expected. Granted, it wasn’t as high as, say, GTA V, Valorant, or Fortnight, but for TLoU, a single player game that’s soooo old and so damn popular with livestreams? Wow. I was impressed. The majority of the livestreams were advertised as first-time playthroughs, indicating its a whole new audience experiencing the journey.
The HBO show has has piqued our interest and captured broad appeal. It’s the “Kate Bush ‘Running Up That Hill’”of 2023: A worldwide phenomenon, spanning myriad countries and crisscrossing countless cultures as one of the preeminent zeitgeist movements of the early 2020s. What’s the popularity ceiling for TLoU? It’s unclear, but it’s likely not yet reached its true zenith.
@NEStalgia “For the Player$!!”
more interactive movies that’s TV-Show ready to come !
@NEStalgia How does this affect you in anyway? The show exists & is clearly bringing in new fans. Why gatekeep?
I can’t speak for myself as I’m waiting for season 1 to finish to binge it, but my sister watched the first episode on YouTube & is now hooked. Literally her only experience with games expands as far as Just Dance for the Wii.
The true test will be if I can get my wife to watch- although that will take some divine intervention!
@Fight_Teza_Fight Because the financial results demonstrate the success behind the Disnification and Hollywoodization of gaming, turning what used to be a unique industry doing its own unique thing for its own unique market into just an extension of the existing mass-mixed-media brand franchise machine.
It's true that plenty of companies are still treating gaming as a unique media, but the more Sony sees financial success on this strategy, the more the hybridization of SIE and Sony Pictures will shape their entire identity in games, and means more likely that not Sony as a publisher will drift farther and farther from my pool of interest. I've been unhappy with the Naughty Dog movie approach to games becoming more standard across Sony titles, and this only reinforces abandoning the market segment I'm in to chase the TV/movie fan market segment instead for higher profits.
TL;DR: I didn't like the TV, TV, TV, Sports Xbox One reveal and preferred what Sony was doing. Now I'm no greater a fan of TV, game, TV, game, TV, game that Sony's shifted to.
@commentlife after one season ?
@Octane yup,and thats completely different ,there was about 20 main characters in got ,in the first season alone ,and the only one of those to be killed off so early was ned stark.
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