Stellar Blade studio Shift Up has shared it estimates the PS5 exclusive has now sold more than one million units since its release in late April. The game has consistently ranked high in sales charts across the UK, USA, and Japan after the launch, which has resulted in today's milestone. In a press briefing, CFO Ahn Jae-woo said:
"Since its launch, it has ranked first in sales in major console markets such as the US and UK, and cumulative sales are estimated to have exceeded one million units." It was said the "first step as a large global IP was smooth" and that a PC version of Stellar Blade is now being considered.
So too is further DLC for the base game and a full sequel, both of which appeared as "under review" in a slide part of the presentation. Shift Up has spoken a lot about what's to come for the Stellar Blade with multiple new Outfits already added free of charge. A Photo Mode is also said to be in production along with a collaboration with the developer's previous title Nikke: Goddess of Victory.
An 8/10 rating was awarded in our Stellar Blade PS5 review upon its release, with praise shared for the monster design, combat system, and fantastic soundtrack. "A dire English dub and some trite story beats mean the studio still has plenty of room to refine its craft, but Eve’s inaugural outing is largely excellent across the board, and destined to become a firm favourite among PS5 enthusiasts."
Are you one of the more than one million PS5 owners with a copy of Stellar Blade to hand? Share your thoughts on the game a few months later in the comments below.
[source gamemeca.com]
Comments 88
That is way lower than anyone thought it would do 🤔
This is my current game of the year, I had such a blast playing it.
Easily the best new IP of the last couple of years.
Only reason it's not my GOTY so far is because System Shock came out for PS5
Didn't several games report that they reached that figure after a month or less? Games that got way less attention than Stellar Blade. Like Lies of Pie or Lords of the Fallen.
It's hard to believe it hasn't sold far more.
@Odium God the hypertube is probably my favorite moment in the game.
I agree with @Drago201 i expected alot more than 1mil sales. Im a bit shocked actually.
It sold 1m slightly quicker than Bayonetta 3(whose sales fell off a cliff and won't reach 2m probay) and will probably do like 4-5m lifetime on PS5 based on the sales momentum Sony published games normally maintain.
That is a strong result and people just have skewed perceptions as usual.
It's hard to know if 1 million is a good sales number, context is needed. 1 million for some games is phenomenal, for others it's failure. But we don't have all the information here. Without knowing the game's budget and what their expectations were it's hard to know which side this is on. As it is it's just a number.
But i'd suspect that this was a lower budget AAA from a new studio and a new IP making 1 million a big success.
@naruball yeah but they launched on PC and Xbox day and date. Of course they sold more.
Ah, I will wait if it will also have a paid DLC. I am intrigued by this game but I don't want to spend as much money on it as I did on Elden Ring or FFXVI.
So no profit at all, right?
Congrats to all involved, it does look spectacular and it’s definitely on my to-do list 👌
@themightyant Considering this game is a hack & slash action game and not big open world game with all bells & whistle for graphics like Horizon or Spiderman 2, my guess is Shift Up & Sony probably doesn't spent more money than what Capcom spent to make DMC 5. And also it could be a lot cheaper than what Sony & SE spent for Forspoken.
Anyeay...Congrats for Shift Up and Sony 🍻
Funny that this result is a big contrast compare to last year Forspoken with dull looking female protags design & world, which Sony also has an exclusives deal and even helped SE with the marketing (and development?) but the game ended up as a big flop.
@Drago201 surprises me as well after all the fanfare
@Bettyswollocks not really. Not everything that launches on xbx1 and PC automatically performs better.
Who cares if 1 million seems "low". The only thing that matters is if the devs are happy with it, and if the franchise can continue. And it sounds to me like they're very happy with it and it WILL continue. Not every company is Square Enix, they probably budgeted properly
Given the massive amount of coverage, I’d assumed it did 3M.
Doesn’t make any difference to me. If the developer turned a profit then good on them.
Just thought I’d point out that we do get vocal minority distortions with hype and media coverage, where in reality the wider market isn’t that fussed.
Whereas a much criticised Ubisoft Star Wars or AC game will still do significantly higher numbers.
The numbers are inversely linked to the forum sentiment, aside from the odd game like Suicide Squad.
Even the much maligned (and deservedly so) Gotham Knights did far bigger numbers.
I felt it was like a breath of fresh air, with so many nice little touches by the Devs.
Like everyone else, waiting for the 2B crossover.
@Nepp67 I enjoyed the first Hypertube, I wasn’t a fan of the second, but admittedly that’s because I really sucked at it. The elevator was a huge highlight for me, that mission was great.
2B crossover when?
Glad its done well as its a really good game. I do have issues mainly around the story and characters but other then that i really enjoyed myself with it.
@PuppetMaster Dull looking female protag in Forspoken? You understand her face is the person playing her right?
Oh this game has more than one character?
casuals don’t want to spend $70 on these types of games.
@ChrisDeku Bayonetta 3 was a flop so that’s not comforting at all…1 million is not strong 2024. Returnal didn’t keep selling nor did demon souls or ratchet,or sackboy only their biggest games keep selling.
Ive done 2 play throughs and am waiting to do my 3rd and final for the plat. 1 more trophy to go (take Adams hand) and then im done. Waiting for the inevitable photo mode tho. This game is screaming out to be a snappers paradise. GOTY right here!
And already plans for a PC version.
Fantastic game. Loved every minute of it, even the fishing wasnt as annoying as it couldve been. Would love to see a sequel instead of dlc
I am a avid rpg fan and there are a ton of them out this year. Despite this Stellar Blade is the most immersive game I have played this year. If there is story dlc and a sequel down the line I will absolutely be purchasing.
This is solid for this game. Yes it got marketing support from Sony but this is still a new ip from a damn mobile team that’s only being sold on a single platform. On top of this game being a little more limited in its reach cause of the very sexual nature of the game. If I where shift up I’d be happy, especially if the budget for this game was on the more reasonable end of things.
@DennisReynolds Sir. I'm not talking about how unattractive her face. But i'm talking about her "overall design" which is looking dull and bland as a protags and for me that was a surprised considering the game made by SE who can created interesting and memorable design for their protagonist.
But If you think her robe, casual clothes & shoes, and bracelet makes you want to play Forspoken then more power to you.
You already know why this game sold that much.its a good game.haha.word up son
to think days gone did 5.5 million and that wasnt even green lit a sequel
1 million now days isnt good
@trev666 I think it really depends on how much development cost overall, depends on expected return i guess
1 million is pretty good for a new IP from a Korean developer who usually only make mobile games.
Also it's estimated budget was 50 million so it's easily made that back and will continue to make a profit going forward, especially once it hits PC.
@naruball Stellar Blade sold 1 million in two months but on one platform (PS5) whilst Lies of P sold one million in one month but was on 5 platforms (PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One and Series S/X)
@trev666 it depends on the budget. I think it's actually pretty good. Just not as great as we thought.
@UltimateOtaku91 yeah, I very much doubt it sold much on ps4 and the xboxes.
I am glad that shift up are pleased with the result. I like others are surprised that it didn't sell much more. Its one of the best games I have played in a very long time and I very much hope that more content or a sequel will happen.
It's a shame that millions upon millions will pay out for the yearly rubbish of games like call of duty but proper quality games like stellar blade gets missed. Even though I thought it would sell more, 1 million for a new I P for 1 platform is still impressive.
That’s pretty rough for a game that looked expensive and had a lot of marketing dollars behind it. It’s a good game but perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to court and audience of angry horny weirdos that make other people embarrassed to play your game.
As others have said context is everything. How much of a return in development costs did they see from that 1m? I'm guessing not much, but until we know otherwise....
Still holding out for a possible PC release myself, but also thinking I might just pick up a boxed copy for the PS5 in the meantime.
@Shad361 Well 1 million is strong if the budget wasn't high, also its a new IP, on one system and an action game so 1M is good. Shift Up seem happy with it anyway.
Great news, it really deserves a sequel!
Enjoyed every minute of this game. If the developers consider this a success then I’m happy with it.
If the game was released for PC, it would sell more than millions of copies because PC is far more popular than PS5 in South Korea.
@DennisReynolds it might have turned a profit but it’s not a smash hit. I’m actually surprised Ronin has outsold it,some people were saying this was gonna sell more than rebirth too lol
I dont know why people thought the dub was bad. Seemed totally fine to me. The game was 10/10 for me.
Seems like it did okay, actually quite similar to Lies of P but that game was multiplatform and from reading the press breafing it seems one of Shift Up's main goals was brand recognition and basically just establishing themselves in the console space.
That's a smart goal really when a lot of gamers, probably more than ever before seem to just be nostalgia driven and just flock to familiar names when it comes to game purchases.
I didnt think much to the / some of the main characters but it was a good game, and it deserves to do well.
Still prefered the similarly non AAA budget Lies of P overall though.
Performance and graphics wise for semi open world it was excellent, and one of the best non-1st party games in the last few years in this regard (The only games I can think of that run better are Hogwarts (easily, but this was big budget), and Lies of P).
@Shad361
Who declared Bayonetta 3 a flop? Do you have a reference for that?
All those games are still selling, you are just making stuff up. All the low end Sony PS4 games sold forever. Games like Until Dawn, Ratchet & Clank, Days Gone never charted significantly after release and never made any waves but by the end of the Gen those were all over 5M from official insomniac leaks, and their openings were nowhere near that. Bloodborne sold 1M in its first month and was at 7.46m in 2022. Detroit: Become Human was 1.5M in two months and is at 8m+ now.
We know for a fact that R&C: Rift apart continued to sell. It was at 1.1M after 6 weeks. At June 2023 it was at 3.97m(2 years later).
Returnal, Demon’s Souls, Stella Blade would all likely be 5M+ by the end of the gen. The only complication is that 2 of those are on PS Plus and it’s unknown how much that affects sales(R&C: Rift apart is also on PS Plus though)
It’s easily my GOTY and I don’t see anything dethroning it. I’d gladly welcome DLC and especially a sequel. Glad to see the devs consider it a success.
@ChrisDeku
Bayonetta 3 had zero legs, the game didn’t perform that well long term. 1 million on switch isn’t impressive when the console has games selling 20-60 million copies.
Rise of the Ronin outperformed this game, definitely sold more than 1 million…
Returnal selling 5 million? Lol It struggled to sell a million and didn’t sell well on pc, where is the influx of users going to come from to push it that high? Games like ratchet are only selling like a couple hundred thousands best case a year not millions.
Also the PS4 era was a different time, this generation is playing out differently when it comes to people actually buying games. All these smaller exclusive games need pc ports now.
no wonder Sony is doing more gaas, helldivers was more successful than all the games discussed combined.
@Shad361 The Switch is very good at selling lots of copies of a very small number of games. It does not sell software well for a wide range of genres. There’s only something like 3 third party games on the Switch that have officially broken the 3M barrier, that tells you what people on the Switch are buying. Even with Bayonetta being published by Nintendo it was still going to struggle to find a massive market always.
R&C: Rift apart literally sold 2.87m copies between July 2021 and June 2023. That’s almost 1.5M per 12 months. That’s the only game we have solid numbers on, there’s zero evidence to suggest the other Sony games are not selling similarly considering they’ve always sold like that. Most Sony games do like 5-10x their opening month numbers over their lifetime. For a new IP from a lesser know studio the multiplier tends to be on the higher end. I’d be shocked if Stellar Blade does’t get around 5M sales.
@CrashBandicoat Are you forgetting that Star Wars , Assassin's Creed, along with Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad must have cost at least 4x more than Stellar Blade? Obviously these games will sell more, as they are infinitely more well-known franchises. Such comparison is unfair on every single regard.
Negative criticism wont prevent a blockbuster like these franchises from selling millions, but they can negatively influence sales. I believe that if Stellar Blade hadn't caused all this controversy, sales would be much lower.
@Shad361 Returnal sold 560k copies by July 2021 and 1.016m by February 2022. That’s close 0.5M in 6 months.
I think you are overlooking the fact that when Returnal released there was something like 10m PS5s sold. By the end of the gen it will be 100m+.
for comparison purposes, games like bayonetta and nier sold less. Stellar blade is a debuting and low-budget franchise, it is to be expected that sales are ok. Although I confess that I expected more, especially with that huge amount of pre-orders and how the demo reached 600k simultaneous players.
@Shad361 Well what people on the internet thought doesn't matter its what Sony and Shift Up expected that matters. First Dark Souls game took way over a year to reach a million, sometimes selling just a million isn't really a bad thing.
@Melinoe Barely anyone knew about this "controversy", a bunch of people on reddit and PQ are very much the minority.
Removed - trolling/baiting
@DennisReynolds Except it wasn't just on reddit, but practically everywhere on the internet. They are not a minority as you think.
@ChrisDeku Bayonetta needed to be multiplat again series can be way bigger than it is.
my point with ratchet is not gonna keep that pace. It’s going to be significantly down. It’s not going to sell 1.5 in 12 months ever again,like I said maybe a couple hundred thousand sold best case.
Returnal also proves my point way more people have PS5’s now yet the games sales haven’t risen that much at all,even the pc port did not help. Most of those 100+ million don’t care about anything other than cod gta madden fifa fortnite etc
@Melinoe The average person doesn't see this stuff i can assure you.
@DennisReynolds
I can also guarantee you that the average person only plays Cod, GTA, FIFA and Fortnite. The millions of people who go out there and buy other games, I guarantee you that a HUGE chunk of them are aware of the controversy.
Less than I bet they expected.
@Melinoe and what is the "controversy"? Internet drama is just that internet drama, people like us are the exception and most people don't even care about gaming controversies. The average person see's an ad for a game or is looking on the PSN store or gaming store and that's how they decide on what game to buy, a good number of people who bought SB didn't even know the game existed before they decided to buy it. The "controversy" wasn't even a real thing it was a made up invention by chuds and incels.
@Melinoe not talking about cost or profitability.
I’m strictly comparing how hype/hate from the media and fans on forums/comments, often has no relation to sales figures.
@DennisReynolds It wasn't a real thing? lol
wasn't the French ign attacking SB real?
The devs themselves having to make a video proving that Eve had real female model , wasn't it real too?
Most of the reviews roasting SB for having a sexy protagonist. Was it not real too?
None of this happened to you, there is no controversy, was it all invented? LMAO
Where do you live? Narnia i guess, because you certainly don't live on earth to make such deluded statements.
Besides, are we going to argue or are we going to go around in circles because you simply ignored everything I said previously?
It would be nice if write ups like this gave some context for what sales numbers might mean. How does this compare to similarly budgeted games in their first X months? Total sales numbers are fairly meaningless once the game starts going on sale, so what were the sales numbers while it was full price? etc.
Stellar Blade was a refreshing experience. I had a lot of fun with the combat. There’s great potential in a sequel so I hope that gets going whenever. I’d be there Day 1
1 million seems low but hey, if its within budget and it turned a profit? Then congrats to shiftup and I look forward to what they do next. Maybe just hire some better writers
1 million is a completely irrelevant number unless we know things like the development budget, marketing budget, how much Sony paid to support it etc.
That being said, if hype was equal to money in the bank the makers of this would be billionaires.
Lots of people are very vocal about how much they love it but, to me, it just seems like a fairly standard hack n slash with skimpy costumes.
Oh but.. this game was supposed to show that woke is dead, yes?
1 Million is lowwww
Congrats, well deserved.
This was a rare day 1 for me. A sequal would be a day 1 too, loved it!
Does anyone know what the up-date has done, can't find patch notes anywhere....
@DennisReynolds Seriously that "controversy" was the dumbest ***** ever(If it's the outfits we're talking about) that could be disproven by looking at some of the outfits, but then again they haven't actually played the game so they don't care.
For a new IP locked to a single platform, that seems like a pretty good number.
I know the budgets likely weren't near as high (given they were 3DS & Switch games respectively), but that million units milestone is what has kept Nintendo pumping out Fire Emblem games after Awakening (which was going to be the last game in the series given how poorly the entries before it performed), as well as all the Xenoblade games Switch has gotten after XC2's success (I think it's sold over 2 million TBF, but I doubt it did all that in the first 2 months).
A better comparison would probably be to look at Granblue Fantasy ReLink, and how fast it hit 1 million given that it has some similarities to Stellar Blade (big console project from a typically mobile developer, I think PS exclusive), other than the fact that the IP isn't new.
@Odium No worries I sucked at it too, the amount of times I kept seeing Eve fall over was funny as hell.
So about 2% of playstation users
@EchoRange what on earth are you talking about
Game of the year for me
@Nepp67 I’m glad it wasn’t just me. I felt bad with how much of a beating she took from that tube. The boss fight was a cake walk compared to it. 😂
@EchoRange 1 million low compare to what?
So far this game has better reviews than Suicide Squad & Gotham Knights, two games by SBI. Sales also surpassed Shift Up expectations compare to WB who doesn't share official numbers but from some report said both games are commercial failure for WB.
I expected more to be honest
Man, a lot of people are going out of their way to take the wind out of Shift Up's sails (sales). It's a small Korean studio that normally works on Phone games making their first console game, with a new IP, as a single console exclusive. 1 million sales is great. Especially with all the controversy that was stirred up over it's character designs and many games outlets going out of their way to trash the game, creator and studio.
New IP, single platform, fairly niche appeal, small studio, significantly lower than AAA budget. One million is perfectly fine.
I don't know what everyone else is on about, 1 million for games like these used to be perfectly fine back in the day, and it's not like this particular market has grown since then. It's available on 50 million PS5's, which isn't really a bigger market than mid-cycle on platforms like PS1 or PS2.
@Melinoe A random reviewer at IGN France took issue big deal who cares. Reviews were strong its sitting at 80% something on MC so clearly most reviewers liked or loved the game. As i said the controversy was an invention from chuds and incels who wanted to cause trouble, it was never really real it was just BS from a bunch of sad sacks.
@Ainu20 @GoodGuyjinGreg Agreed.
A brand new IP of hack & slash game rarely sold a million copies in less than a month or two. DMC 1 lifetime sales for PS2 only reach 2.16 million copies and DMC 3 (not counting special edition) lifetime sales for PS2 only reach 1.3 million copies.
https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/million.html#tab6
Or Bayonetta 1 needs 5 months to sold 1.35 million copies from October 2009 to March 2010 and the game released for two platforms PS3 & 360 who has bigger installbase than PS5.
Meanwhile Stellar Blade which is PS5 exclusives already sold 1 million copies in less than 4 months, which is half the numbers of DMC 1 PS2 and will surpass DMC 3 PS2 numbers as well Bayonetta 1 for PS3 & 360 in the same timeframe.
So people who said 1 million is too low for a brand new hack & slash game, you're comparing with what games exactly?
I think it deserves it sales and more. I think it will do well in the long run PC release in a year or 2.Plus it be on sale so it will do well. Shift Up are happy. I loved the game personally it was lot of fun and enjoyed Eve couldn't give a crap about the controversy. Feel like I'm glad to be one of the players that purchased the game.
they need to add those skins to Fortnite
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