“Exclusivity sells consoles”, is a popular slogan. However, exclusivity also hurt game sales—and Helldivers 2 has just proven it. Recent data shows that the game has jumped to 7th in lifetime USD sales rank in Sony’s games publishing history.
The news was shared on X by Mat Piscatella, the executive director and video game industry analyst at Circana. Circana published its US games industry sales report for March on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Helldivers 2 had previously topped February’s sales chart and was in the second spot in March. Data from Circana shows that Helldivers 2 is the best-selling premium game of 2024 so far based on dollar sales.
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“PC has been a huge part of the success of Helldivers II in the US. With PC, Helldivers II is already the 7th highest-grossing Sony published game in history,” wrote Piscatella on X. “Without PC it wouldn’t currently rank among the top 20.”
“And according to Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, Helldivers II has ranked first in US MAU on Steam each month since launch (including April). Launching Helldivers II on both PlayStation and PC has been nothing short of a massive, resounding success.”
Surely, there are lots of factors to consider here besides launching Helldivers 2 on PC which might have helped the game to succeed commercially—and a lot of people did point out this when Piscatella shared the stats on X.
The first important factor to consider was the price-point of Helldivers 2 which was less than half of what AAA titles cost today. That alone makes the comparison between Helldivers 2 and other Sony publications priced at $60/$70 seem unfair.
However, that point is quickly nullified by Piscatella’s point that Helldivers 2 would not be in the top 20 of Sony’s highest-grossing if not for the contribution of PC sales. Regardless of how you play out the dynamics, it is easy to see that Sony needs to reconsider where they launch their games.
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According to DFC Intelligence, there are about 1.86 billion PC gamers across the globe—the number of PC gamers has steadily risen since 2008. In February, it was announced that Sony had sold 54.8 million PS5s.
Sony’s continued restriction of first-party title releases to PS5 simply means that they are restricting the game’s audience to 54.8 million people when they could easily publish on PC and expand the game’s audience to an additional 1.8 billion people across the globe.
So, while exclusivity is good for the console business, it hurts developers and restricts games from reaching their full potential—and player count. This is something that Sony needs to seriously consider going forward.
Helldivers 2 was dethroned in March by Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2
Helldivers 2 reign as the best-selling game in the monthly chart was cut short with the release of Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 which has now become the third best-selling game of 2024 so far, behind Helldivers 2 and Modern Warfare 3.
“Dragon’s Dogma II debuted as the best-selling premium game of March and the 3rd best-selling game of 2024 YTD,” Piscatella revealed on X. “With just one month in market, Dragon’s Dogma II has already surpassed the life-to-date tracked dollar sales of Dragon’s Dogma and Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen combined.”
Helldivers II remains the best-selling premium game of 2024 year-to-date after placing 2nd in March. Helldivers II currently ranks 7th in lifetime US dollar sales for Sony published titles after just two months in market.
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) May 1, 2024
The biggest jump in ranking was Horizon II: Forbidden West which moved from 107 position the previous month to place 14 in March. Other new entrants into the top 10 position include MLB: The Show 24 (3rd), Rise of the Ronin (5th), Princess Peach: Showtime! (6th), Unicorn Overload (8th), and WWE 2K24 (9th).
