Break-out Sales Surprise of 2015 - Article
by Tyler Treese , posted on 09 January 2016 / 9,112 Views
Every year in gaming is filled with surprises from both a quality and performance standpoint. Typically these go together, and 2015 was filled with games that proved better than expected in both areas. Rocket League went from being a sequel to a niche downloadable title to an absolute phenomenon, Splatoon ended up being the hit that the Wii U needed, Until Dawn was shockingly good and sold well beyond expectations, and Cities: Skylines came out of nowhere to suddenly dominate a genre.
The Nominees:
Splatoon
Cities: Skylines
Until Dawn
Rocket League
And the Winner is...
Rocket League
Community's Choice - Splatoon (53% of the votes)
Nobody could have expected Rocket League to become such a massive hit. A sequel to the much less well-known Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, an average PlayStation 3 downloadable title that didn't have a lasting impact, there was little indication that Psyonix would improve the sequel tenfold and that the sales would increase correspondingly.
While it obviously helps that Rocket League was a free title for PlayStation Plus subscribers, Rocket League was also massive success on the PC (well over 2.3 million sales on Steam, according to Steam Spy estimates) - the arguably less receptive platform for a game of this nature - and that speaks volumes for how well the game would have performed on PlayStation 4 even if it hadn't been part of the PlayStation Plus free games promotion. With an Xbox One release around the corner we expect this incredible sales performance to continue well into 2016.
Although all of the nominees listed above sold beyond expectations we feel it was Rocket League, above all of the others, that surprised the most and that is why it's our Break-out Sales Surprise of 2015.
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Splatoon is obviously the only correct answer.
Seeing as it won the community choice with over 50% of the vote, and the voters dont have control over what the reviewers of the site think - I'd argue that you should be happy. If they were all nominees it means they all could have deserved it. So for the same reason, please don't downplay another good and deserving game, as if trying to invalidate the site staff's opinions.
I would give it to Splatoon. Sure, nobody probably expected RL to be a big success, but a lot of people believed Splatoon would bomb. The jokes on them since Splatoon turned out to be a big success, which is pretty good considering people said it would bomb and it was on a poor selling console. Splatoon seems like the right answer to me.
Splatoon deserved this one...
Nah splatoon was hella hyped by Nintendo fans but nobody was hyping rocket league.
Splatoon did great, but Rocket League did way better. IMO both deserve first spot.
(I can't wait for this comment to have 15 downvotes). You people need to understand that there's games other than Splatoon that deserved this award. I don't understand why most of you are saying things like "Splatoon is the ONLY correct answer" or downvoting any comment that disagrees with yours. Even though I think Splatoon should've won, you need to understand that Rocket League is deserving of the award as well.
Dang, now I feel like that -15 vote thing is a challenge now, hah.
Lol was that you that downvoted my comment? XD
Yeah, that was me, only because your -15 comment moved me to do it, haha. As for your overall thought, I can agree on that. Both feel fitting for the award. I just side more with Splatoon getting it. I don't mean to invalidate the staff's pick. I didn't even notice the community pick was Splatoon. So I am okay with this award.
Looks like we're now 18 downvotes away from our goal.
Curses! I would have gotten away with it if wasn't for you meddling VGC members! Foiled again..!
Hmm, I guess it makes sense. Splatoon premiered to a very positive reception at E3 and immediately saw large amounts of fanart generated for it long before its release. There was plenty of naysayers but Splatoon's success wasn't as out of nowhere as Rocket League's. If memory serves, RL didn't get an E3 premier or as much fanart and was a follow-up to a title very few had heard about. Sure it got PS+ promotion but so do many other games.
Until Dawn deserved it in my opinion. A lot of people got Rocket League for free, so it really shouldn't count, imo.
Rocket league still sold millions without the free downloads people had. It definitely should be a candidate
This was completely unfair. Rocket League was given away for free of course it was going to be a big hit. Splatoon was a 60$ game that sold really well for a new IP on a struggling system
Also Splatoon was a new concept that was fresh and new, RL was created based on the same concepts from a game made by the same dev team from 2008-9. Seriously if you wiki the dev team you will see an older RL game from 2008-9 called "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars"
First, the down/up-vote system absolutely sucks and this illustrates that perfectly. Legitimate opinions being hidden because the dominant hive-mind wants to bury anything different is just shameful.
Second, Rocket League is the clear winner in my opinion. A tiny third-party game against a heavily marketed first-party title that had its own console bundle? Yeah.
Now, bring me your down-votes.
I kept saying this time and time again and I;d still get downvoted for it by the hive minds, the very people who are still a blight to this site because they would rather have your say censored and marked in red than simply talking things out.
Doesn't surprise me when I see companies like Google who got rid of that system nearly 3 years ago, Disqis 2 and a half years ago and other forums and sites, there's even been studies/talks of why such a system is bad in general because it doesn't actually contribute anything to any discussion and can and will lead to circle jerking and in a case like this, censorship.
I personally think Rocket League wins it out, but Splatoon is a close second. Rocket League is everywhere now, but before that, it was an unknown. With Splatoon, people knew about it well beforehand at the least. Of course, many thought it would fail, but that doesn't change the fact that it had a lot more official exposure.
The same technically happened with Undertale and that game next to no marketing of any sort while RL had marketing with Sony and PS+, UT got exposure through it's fanbase and yet that indie won less awards despite being unique and doing new things that most games these days would rather ignore. The difference here is that UT did something different and so did Splatoon but with RL it exists in the same shadow of a game that was created by the same dev team from 2008-9, despite what RL brings to the table it still exists and was born from the same concept and team and of course given free via PS+ while the other two were full price.
Yea it is unfortunate how this happens. The funny thing is I am still surprised when I see it happens, even though I have seen it happen before time and time again. Like I'm sitting here looking at midrange's comment, which currently sits at -3, and wondering how it all went wrong.
A pleasant reminder that when the users had our say, Splatoon won with an impressive 53% of the vote! Now that our turn is over, it's the site staff's turn to choose; so please don't invalidate their pick.
Clearly it's Rocket League... Splatoon is a 1st party game developed and marketed by Nintendo and released on a console whose userbase is starved of quality software, so its sales shouldn't have surprised anybody.
Splatoon was the only winner here, Really surprised it didn't get the award.
I think it should have been Splatoon, it's a $60 retail game compared to one that was given away for free.
It's funny how much some people's judgment is clouded when it comes to their favourite game/company. You seem to be ignoring one too many things.
- Hundreds of games have been given for free on ps+. How many of them turned out to be so successful? (this is not a rhetorical question). Please name a few that became (hugely) successful thanks to ps+. I'll wait as I'm curious.
- (you mentioned install base) How much competition did Rocket League have on Steam and how much did Splatoon on wiiU?
- What reputation did the company that made Rocket League have compared to Ninty's 1st party?
How much money did the Rocket League developers spent on advertising compared to Ninty's on Splatoon? How much coverage did RL receive by Sony compared to Ninty's of Splatoon (directs, etc). - Which of the two genres has done better so far, Shooters or whatever Rocket League is?
Rocket League was given away for free and it has a small price (it´s basically an indie game), so I don´t think it was a surprise at all.
Splatoon is the right answer. RL was free its first month. I doubt it would have had anywhere near the momentum it had if it wasn't for that.
I'm surprised Ark: Survival Evolved wasn't at least nominated.
People who are saying Nintendo-fans are whining, I don't think so. I mean, Splatoon is an entirely new franchise(Rocket league wasn't). Also, Splatoon was on the Wii U. Wii U selling horribly, everyone thought the IP would die quickly. Splatoon truly deserved it.
The fact that rocket league is an indie title and the sequel to a game that wasn't that big to begin with is shocking giving its sales. It's a breakout surprise like no other. How many people did you know say "I'm totally gonna get the sequel to supersonic acrobatic rocket powered battle cars!" Even the devs didn't think it would be this big.
Rocket league is a valid choice
The editors really loved Rocket League and Ori this year I think they won most of their respective nominee categorys. I have played neither yet, so my personal choices would have been diffrent, but I'm sure they're great games.
Rocket league = a small add on from a ps1 game called rollcage
Roll cage stage 2 was particularly great. But yes, this game ripped it off. Maybe rocket league plays well but it's far from original.
To me, Rocket League was the most pleasant surprise of 2015. But lets be honest, PS Plus copies of the game, shouldn't count for this category.
Splatoon was by far the most surprising.While Rocket league was surprising too, it had several things that helped its momentum, like the PS plus.But other than being a new Ip from Nintendo in a long time, Splatoon had nothing going for it.
Rocket League became a phenomenon, Splatoon simply wasn't. It's cute though.
The title is break out SALES Surprise. rocket league had way less hyped and sold way more. On pc it wasn't free and on ps4 it sold over half its copies after it was free. It sold way more, it wins, deal with it. Congrats RL!
Ps. Xbox gamers are in for a treat when they get this soon :)
People need to stop trying to put the staff's decision down. It's simply opinion. There is no "correct answer." There is no game that "deserved" the win. Rocket league is a great candidate that went beyond expectations. Who would have that the sequel to an obscure indie game would go onto be in the hands of 9 million users (and growing)?
Tbh even though I think Splatoon should've won, I don't understand why your post was downvoted. People need to understand that there's opinions other than theirs, and not everybody has to think that Splatoon deserved to win.
Break out sales surprise. Rocket league sold 2.3 million on steam, and sold ??? on the ps4, as it was free, and I'm guessing a high percentage of its "sales" were free. So, aside from the sales on steam, how is it a sales surprise when it was given away for free? Its not a sale when you got it free. Splatoon, sold a couple million on wiiu... sold. If nintendo Gabe splatoon away, and they gave away 7 million, would it have won? My guess is, the people who decide these would say it was free, so no. Splatoon is the real winner here.
For me personally, Rocket League surprised me more. Sure, it had help getting recognized with PS+ (That's how I initially learned of it), but having played the predecessor (after RL), to see such success off of RL and not SRPBC is quite a surprise as they're quite similar. That and I'm never surprised that a Nintendo IP does well, regardless if it is new.
The title is break out SALES Surprise. rocket league had way less hyped and sold way more. On pc it wasn't free and on ps4 it sold over half its copies after it was free. It sold way more, it wins, deal with it. Congrats RL!
Ps. Xbox gamers are in for a treat when they get this soon :)
So RL won like two awards so far?.
Seriously it's the same concept done by the same devs and well Splatoon is new and unique along with Cities Skylines, hell even UD as well.
Well deserved. This game is huge in denmark imo. Its like everyone of my friends plays it.
"Community's Choice" - The community is stupid.
If there was an award for most threads on VGChartz about anything to do with the game matter how pointless, Splatoon would win that hands down.
True, lol :-D.
I can't thumbs-up this comment enough.
The thing is rocket league probably has 10m+ players by now.
It deserved to win this.
CaptainExplosion look at the title dude. Break-out Sales Surprise.
Its about games that surprise people with sales numbers.
Did anyone think Rocket League would come out and reach like 10m user base?
Name 5 other times where a unique and innovative game concept became a sales juggernaut within the past 5 years, and I'll let you have your opinion.
Dude, can you stop with this "first Nintendo new IP in years"? Tomodachi Life was released a year before Splatoon and sold millions. It's a Nintendo IP. Why do people ignore it?
And then we got Pushmo, Steel Diver, Xenoblade, Wonderful 101, HarmoKnight, Tokyo Crash Mobs, ... All very recent Nintendo IPs.
Hell, WEEKS before Splatoon they released Code Name Steam and Boybox for the 3DS.
Nintendo publishes more new IPs than ANY OTHER company. Why the heck do you people keep saying Splatoon is the first new Nintendo IP in years? WTF is wrong with you?
