Returnal appears to be Sony’s slowest PC launch to date.
According to SteamDB, the roguelike shooter had less than 7,000 concurrent players during its first weekend. Sackboy: A Big Adventure, the only game in Sony’s recent PC catalog that performed worse, had only 610 peak, concurrent players.
Sony’s other PC ports have fared far better, with God of War leading the pack with approximately 74,000 concurrents, Marvel’s Spider-Man with approximately 66,000, Horizon Zero Dawn with approximately 56,000, and Days Gone with approximately 28,000.
It’s worth noting that, while Returnal received positive reviews and industry accolades in the year following its release, it’s a much smaller IP than God of War or Spider-Man.
Returnal was released this week for PC and is currently the 165th most-played game on Steam in the last 24 hours. Despite being a far larger IP than Returnal, Uncharted: The Legacy of Thieves Collection managed a similarly low 10,851 concurrent player count during its debut weekend, indicating that even some of PlayStation’s larger IPs have yet to make a significant impact on PC.
Sony claimed in June 2021 that the game sold approximately 560,000 copies on PlayStation 5 during the first two months, which was within its expectations.
Returnal’s PC port was finally announced in December 2022, after months of speculation. Although the title will incorporate ideas and narrative systems originally planned for Returnal, Housemarque’s next game will be a new intellectual property rather than a sequel.
