Handheld Playdate Has Sold 53,142 Units in 1st Year, Beating Expectations - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 18 April 2023 / 3,102 Views
Panic announced its gaming handheld the Playdate sold 53,142 units across the initial shipping countries in the first year the device has been available.
The developer of the handheld had expected to manufacture just 20,000 units of the Playdate, however, pre-orders topped that total in under 20 minutes.
"It’s been a great year for Playdate," said project lead Greg Maletic. "When we started, we had no idea how big the audience would be for a weird product like this, but we told the factory: build 20,000.
"To have now sold more than 53,000 (and counting) is heartening. And this, at a time when parts shortages forced our delivery lead-times out as much as a year. As those lead-times shorten and Playdate delivery becomes more immediate, we’re looking forward to an even better Year Two."
The company has shipped 27,000 of the pre-orders and expects to fulfill the rest of the pre-orders by the end of the year.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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That's the most hipster video game device I've ever seen.
When I first saw this years ago, always thought it was a missed opportunity not to have the crank recharge the battery.
Good work on being a success, sometimes going back to basics (Black and white/non-backlit screen, couple buttons) isn't a bad thing.
That's cool they are finding more success than they expected. It's definitely a different way to play games, from the crank to the random games coming each "season", but that doesn't make it bad, just different.
I watched the video, but I don't understand. Are the games not permeant? It didn't sound like it. It sounded like they just swap out new games, which would indicate that when the ride ends, the device would be useless. Unless I'm not understanding something?
Yay. I'm happy for their success!
A fun idea, but this thing looks like junk.
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