The question we’re asking is, has Sucker Punch’s just released stealth-action game Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC earned over £18 million in revenue on release week via the Steam platform alone (also available via the Epic Games Store)? The game saw a peak player count of 57,934 according to SteamDB. £18 Million turnover would be quite an achievement considering at some point in the past, publishers would ignore the PC platform entirely due to piracy concerns. We’re only looking at the PC version here, and it’s an older game remastered for the PC platform via developer Nixxes. There might also be a discrepancy with various global exchange rates. However, the piracy stance on PC has changed over recent years as more people have flocked to the platform with disposable income, enticing the likes of SONY to release once Playstation exclusive titles there.
We’re only looking at the Steam release which currently has over 12,500 user reviews. Now obviously, those will be from various regions across the globe, and some may have paid more (or less) than others. However, there is a metric that the number of sales could be quite accurately corresponded with the number of Steam reviews.
Looking deeper into the figures, it appears back in the 2013 period, sales were 70+ times more than the reviews number, however in 2021 the figure has dropped to around 30 times. If that is still applicable today, then if we look at the 12,500 user reviews and multiply that by 30, we get some 375,000 copies sold. Multiply that figure by the £49.99 asking price to achieve a revenue of over £18 million. That said, there could be a number of returns due to the negative review bombing from disgruntled players when there was a Playstation (PSN) account requirement that is no-longer needed.
However, how does this figure compare to other Playstation titles now being sold on PC? UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection which sold less-than-expected since 2022, has a similar number of reviews on Steam but that’s over a far longer period.
According to Jim Ryan former SIE CEO:
Horizon: Zero Dawn has sold 2,398,000 on PC in 1.5 years.
God Of War (2018) has sold 971,000 units on PC in 2.5 months.
Days Gone has sold 852,000 units in 10 months.
Horizon: Zero Dawn has generated $60 million revenue, God of War (2018) generated $26.2 million revenue, and Days Gone generated $22.6 million in revenue.
Putting Ghost of Tsushima DC £18 million into perspective then, that’s a pretty good showing considering it does not include the EPIC Games Store numbers. Whilst it pales in comparison to console release figures, it’s worth considering the conversion cost to PC, Steam’s cut and how much that will impact actual profit. Still, we’re very pleased to be getting these conversions to the PC platform and hope it remains a profitable venture.
Source: How to Estimate Steam Video Game Sales in 2021? (gamedeveloper.com)
