Saros Is Selling Slower Than Returnal

"According to Alinea's newsletter by Rhys Elliott, Saros has sold over 300k copies in its first two weeks of release, bringing in about $22m in revenue for Housemarque and Sony, a small dent in its report $76 million budget."

"A third of those copies, so around 100K, were from the early access period, meaning a third of the people who bought it were happy enough to shell out a little extra to play early. Those were probably the die-hard Returnal fans."

"Alinea says Saros is currently selling slower than Returnal did, even though Saros has around 93m PS5s in the wild, while Returnal only had about 8m consoles to sell itself to. The newsletter does raise a few interesting points about why this might be the case, including that early PS5 adopters were hungry for something to play, which may have helped Returnal, whereas Saros has launched during a busy period and has to contend with the fact that PS5 owners have a lot to play these days."

"Housemarque did a lot to make it a more welcoming and forgiving game than Returnal, likely in a bid to give it broader appeal. Still, there's a chance that as word of mouth grows, it'll become the kind of game that just keeps quietly selling in the background."

Saros has sold over 300k copies in its first two weeks, generating about $22 million in revenue for Housemarque and Sony. Roughly one third of sales came from early access, indicating a sizable group of players willing to pay extra to play sooner. Current sales are slower than Returnal’s early performance, even though Saros has access to about 93 million PS5 consoles compared with Returnal’s roughly 8 million. One factor suggested is that early PS5 adopters were eager for new games, while Saros launched during a busier period with many competing titles. Housemarque made Saros more welcoming and forgiving than Returnal, aiming for broader appeal, and sales could improve through word of mouth over time.

Read at WGB