Astro Bot Sells 1.5 Million PS5 Copies Inside Nine Weeks

Ugh, that last time trial level in the clouds is giving me a headache trying to outrun the red bird.

It's good that it is selling and will likely make a profit, just a bit underwhelming considering how good the game actually is. As long as we get more 3D platformers I'm happy.

I wonder how they gather that “new user” data. It’s an interesting statistic and I don’t doubt that it’s correct, but how does Sony know if I’ve purchased one of their games in the last 2 years? Perhaps they mean “played” one of their games in the last two years and they are using trophy data attached to their user profiles.

Ahhh, I am so happy to hear that.

@Th3solution Maybe they here mean only the purchases from the PS store. This way they will know since they have your history.
Not sure how they count if I buy second hand game and install it - is this a buy or not a buy.
Interesting indeed.

Fully Deserved

I like Astro Bot, but give me Ratchet over it every single time

I had a fantastic time with Astro Bot, squeezing nearly thirty hours of gameplay out of it and grabbing the platinum. It’s also comfortably eclipsed the likes of Stellar Blade, Echoes of Wisdom and FFVII Rebirth as my personal game of the year. Man, you really can’t beat a top tier 3D platformer!

@Sergo I'm fairly sure @Th3solution's got it with the trophy data. There's loads of useful data Sony and Developers can mine from it.

Wonderful game.

Seriously though, If you can play this game and not find at least some form of enjoyment from it (particularly if you're a fan of Playstation in general), then I'm sorry but there must be something wrong with you lol.

It's an absolute masterpiece and has so many little nods of PS history in it that it just can't fail to make you smile.

@somnambulance better than Stellar Blade? I beg to differ. Those are teo different games. You could say that you prefer Astro bot more than SB. I have bought FF7 Rebirth, Stellar Blade and I have 0 interest in Astro Bot. But I am not claiming that SB is better game because of that.

@Th3solution you really think that Sony cant see all data connected to your PSN account? If you havent launched those games on your account, you dont have that game.

@REALAIS This silent robot has more personality than the whole cast of Stellar Blade combined.

Those Demon Souls, Returnal and Ratchet and Clank lifetime sales numbers seem shockingly low to me. Have they even made their budgets back?

"This means it has already outperformed the lifetime sales of Demon's Souls (1.4 million), Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (1.1 million), and Returnal (560,000)."

Except these aren't lifetime sales. Sony aren't very good at keeping their totals updated and copy/paste them.

Demon's Souls is a 3 year old figure, and the Insomniac leak suggests it sold 1.8m. Returnal 800,000 before the PC version released, and Rift Apart apparently sold 4m copies by June '23.

@__jamiie See my post below yours. R+C definitely made a profit as an internal slide says so.

Great game. Watch Sony ruin it.

@Max_the_German I don't doubt it. It is probably one of best PS5 games, especially if Controller vibration is thing you like, I love games with great Haptic Feedback. But platformers in general is not my cup of tea.

I was one of those "new users". Hadn't bought a game from the first party library since Rift Apart (and again later on PC for better performance and convenience).

Heck, It's a joke amongst friends that every time I turn my PS5 on it has to do a year's worth of updates.

Those are not lifetime sales figures for Ratchet and Returnal. Ratchet sold 1.1 million by July 2021. That's in its first month. It will have likely far surpassed this number as PS5 adoption grew and since it was released on PC.

The Returnal sales figure mentioned is also from that same month. Both are almost three and a half years old.

@__jamiie They’re actually not even remotely close to lifetime sales, they’re just the last published official numbers. I believe from the Insomniac leak Returnal had sold around 1m in it’s first year and R&C was around 4M in March 2023.

It really deserves to have a long tail sales curve too. Hopefully it’ll double those sales before long. What a game!

@LowDefAl @ChrisDeku Thanks both for clarifying. Those numbers did seem absolutely ridiculous to me.

Very misleading article.

Actually Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart as sold 4 million

@REALAIS @Sergo Yeah, the physical sales is the one variable that simply using PSN sales data would miss and could affect the accuracy of this number. And if launching the game is the metric to count as a sale, then that also doesn’t account for multiple users in a household.
Scenario 1: Steve buys a physical copy of Spider-Man 2 and then buys Astrobot digitally. Is he a “new user”?
Scenario 2: Steve hasn’t bought any Sony games in 2 years but buys Astro Bot on disc but hasn’t played it yet. Is he being counted as a “new user”?
Scenario 3: Steve has bought and played TLoU2 Remastered this year, then buys Astro Bot, plays it. He has a wife and a 11 yr old daughter and an 8 yr old son, none of which played TLoU2. They all play that copy of Astro Bot on their own PSN accounts. Is that being counted as 3 “new user” sales?
Scenario 4: (and this is closer to my situation) Steve has bought on sale GoWR, HFW, and GT7 on disc this year. He hasn’t played any of them and they sit on his pile of backlog shame. He buys Astro Bot digitally. Is he counted as a new user even though he’s bought 3 Sony games this year and just hasn’t played them yet?
Scenario 5: Steve has PS+ Extra and rarely buys games. He’s played TLoU1 and Demon’s Souls this year through PS+. He buys Astro Bot. Is he not counted as a “new user”? If he’s playing all the games via the service, technically he’s a new purchaser but his trophy list may have many Sony games the past 2 years.

Anyway, there’s just lots of variables to account for. I think the data is probably real in the sense Astro Bot has allowed them to tap into a new market, the family and kid-friendly market who often don’t engage with their games. It’s just the exactness of that “37%” number should probably be taken with a grain of salt. It’s almost certainly a measure of new engagement with a Sony game rather than a sales metric. I would be curious to see of the 1.5 million games sold, how many different users have launched the game? I suspect Scenario #3 is quite common and so 2 or more people in a household are playing the game because it’s rated E and so it’s going to skew the numbers. So 1.5 million x .37 = 555K people who’ve not bought a Sony product in 2 years? That’s probably not a legitimate number.

Also, I do think they might mean a “new user” hasn’t bought one of Sony’s new releases in the last 2 years, so in other words hasn’t bought SM2, Helldivers2, Until Dawn Remake, etc. I imagine people who bought Demon’s Souls this year but nothing else would still be considered a “new user”, but it’s hard to tell from their explanation.

@LowDefAl I was about to say I'm sure I read somewhere that R&C smashed that number...

The game is fun but it's definitely a one and done for me. AstroBot on the other hand I'll probably pick up a few times before it sits on the shelf for the rest of eternity.

@dark_knightmare2 This is probably in relation to the first 9 weeks of sales. I bet with sales and stuff that its sales will gradually increase overtime

Lets get real, that number sucks and it's too bad because Astro Bot is an awesome game. Massive failure by the PS fanbase once again.

@somnambulance Have to hard disagree, AstroBot is nowt like Stellar Blade and Spidey 2, although I don't think I'd group those 2 together either.
I think all 3 are excellent in their own right, with MSM2 being the weaker of the bunch, and both SB and MSM2 both have story issues.

Agree unequivocally with your thoughts on how Sony should bear this in mind going forward though. Still know a couple of holdouts rocking a PS4 though, because whatever the smeg FIFA is called these days...

Astrobot unfortunately won't win back bunch of people that feel their interests aren't being served by the PS5. It also won't cause a bunch more similar games to appear in the next year.

It may however hopefully prove to PS bosses they need to diversify their games lineup for the PS6.

@Th3solution you go into much details Who knows what kind of information they have.
I would speculate that each game could have Unique identifier, and they could easily see who plays second hand game in that way. Unless you keep console without ever going online, very unlikely. I would assume that they would have such system to track specific data like that. Each car in world has Unique identifiers, why wouldnt games, which are sold in lower volume wouldnt had that?

MORE GAMES LIKE THIS SONY!!

@REALAIS Haha! 😅 I definitely get lost in the weeds sometimes. It’s just that it’s a minor pet peeve of mine when data is used which is either not valid or is conflated and not related to the conclusion being drawn from them. We just had an election and so I’ve been in my “skeptical of statistics that are thrown around” mode. 😄 Numbers can be spun and manipulated in many ways and often companies, people, or governments report stats that aren’t measuring that they think they’re measuring.

And I’m not saying Sony is misleading us or erroneously coming to the conclusion that Astro Bot has reached a new audience. I believe it’s correct, and this number may be the most accurate assessment they can come up with to prove that, but I believe it’s healthy to just verify where numbers are coming from because, like they say — “67.3% of statistics are made up.” 😜

@Gamer83 “ Massive failure by the PS fanbase once again. “

Ok don’t you think that’s a little harsh, besides, you know, putting the blame in the entirely wrong direction? 🤷🏻‍♂️

It’s a 12 hour long game for $60, that’s single player, and is still being updated, that launched probably a month earlier than it should have for holiday sales, which it will get b/c of the graphics that make it look likes a kids game. And nowadays a lot of kids are playing free to start games like Roblox and Fortnite. So it’s probably less the fanbase’s fault, more the parents fault.😂

Ok joking aside, the game will be $30 Black Friday, or available in a B1G1 50% off sale, making it $30. Single player games like this will not stay full MSRP for long. Well until we go all digital, then they never have to get lower in price b/c zero competition.🤑

Massive failure by the PS fanbase once again. Yeah, no, this one’s Squarely on Sony for the pricing and timing of the release. On 2nd thought it’s not a massive failure, by anyone, game is probably selling as it should for now. Who knows, maybe people are waiting for it to come to a rental service they pay $100+ a year for. That’s probably a part of it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I am glad they didn't go with a VR game.

Deserves more sales, but this is just the beggining. It will have a long tail, no doubt. Still hasn't had any price cuts. I am waiting for one. 😁

@Th3solution when New audience is everyone who hasnt bought 1st party game in 2 years, it is already stretching something. Imagine selling 65million PS5, game sell 1.5million copies. And 37% is new audience. Companies like to create beautiful statistics with large numbers

@rjejr Everygame has to sell 10 million copies or it is failure It is specific game for specific audience. It straight away goes to PS5 Classic games imo, and will be touted as one of best PS5 games. Even if I dont like it, I think it is success and hopefully they didnt spent 100million for development and it is already in proffit. Not all games has to be blockbusters.

Been tryna get my soon of 5 years old into video games and he dips in here and there with his switch but with astro bot he's locked in and treasure hunters every bot, every puzzle piece and the secret levels. He even asks who's the character bots and where they're from.. great gaming dad moment