Astro Bot in the UK Sold a Third Lower Than Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 October 2024 / 9,615 Views
The head of GamesIndustry Christopher Dring revealed physical sales for Astro Bot in its opening week sold about a third less than 2021's Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. However, he expects the game to have longer legs.
"Astro Bot's UK sales (physical-only so far) aren't huge," said Dring. "Opening week is about a third lower than 2021's Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, but I expect a longer sales tail for Astro."
Dring claims Astro Bot sold more in the UK in two days than Concord did worldwide.
"It's certainly sold more copies in the UK in just 2 days than Concord sold worldwide," he added.
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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Since most people seem negative on here, let me state this for the record: I predict 10 mil+ lifetime.
in your dreams.
The word of mouth will drive sales for this. I think it's on people watchlists, but didn't expect to be so well received. I know if two friends that were holding out, but then when I told them how great it is, they bought it.
You wish.
I'm expecting digital to make up the difference and more...
Not sure why this comment was downgraded but you are right. The market has shifted massively towards digital since Rift Apart, and the vast majority of people who buy Astro Bot are not going to ever want to sell it.
"Make up the difference"?
There's Millions of additional PS5 owners now compared to when R/C released... There is no excuse why it is selling less
This report is only for only physical sales, and only 1/3rd less. In 2021, the market was 70/30 between digital/physical. Now it is closer to 90/10 for Sony sales. I feel like it is totally possible for digital to eliminate that physical sales gap.
Let me show you math:
1 million sales example from 2021 for Rift Apart:
- 300,000 copies physical (30%)
-
700,000 copies digital (70%)
2 million sales example from 2024 for Astro Bot: - 200,000 copies physical (20%, 1/3 lower than Rift Apart)
- 1.80 million digital (90%)
It's a small game from a small developer. Strong critical reception and word of mouth may or may not benefit it, but their effect should manifest more in legs, and less in the sales of the first couple of days.
Why do you think Astro is supposed to be competing with Ratchet in launch numbers anyway? Just because Kirby arrived on Switch late in the cycle on a bigger base doesn't mean it needs to outsell Mario Odyssey lol
Ratchet is a much bigger budget game, established franchise, arrived with little current gen competition and was used to hype the power of the PS5 and got a way bigger marketing push. I suspect Astro will comfortable sell more then it both at launch globally and lifetime... But if it only equaled Ratchets 4m that'd actually make it a big success all the same. 65 size team, made over 3 years..
Well that's only physical sales what about digital?
All I know is Astrobot is phenomenal and deserves some consideration for GOTY.
Ouch.
As suspected digital numbers are in and the game sold 21% more than Ratchet and Clank when looking at complete sales
Btw this data is basically meaningless as above all the other reasons they are comparing it to the launch week of a bundled game when only the bundle was available for that week and every PS5 still sold out in minutes. They also track bundled sales as physical. So everyone that bought a PS5 that week had a copy of the game.
Using large player samples from tracking websites it looks like it sold around 2m copies on launch week. It’s roughly 3x as many people playing it on launch day on PS5 as Star Wars Outlaws and Space Marine 2.
I wonder if they will do a PS5 Pro astrobot bundle as they did with so many other titles with standard PS5
It's what I expected. Astro is a delight, but it's audience isn't on PS5
Not true. Even Nintendo's non Mario platformers such as Kirby do not open with huge numbers in the UK, nothing to do with PS5s audience, more the genre at large.
None the less I expect digital to push it above Ratchet since this is not a major IP or blockbuster AAA title where people rush to get the physical. Ratchet at its time was the 2nd biggest PS5 launch in the UK, so not a bad comparison even if it falls a tad short of beating it. Ratchet also remained flat week on week, so again legs will be where its at if the game is a sales success which it likely already is based on these numbers & its budget which is about 1/3 of Ratchets
Kirby and the forgotten Lands has sold over 7.5million units.
These are numbers Ratchet could only dream off. Typically Ratchet and Clank games sell less than 5 million. Rift apart is probably at 4 million by now.
The userbase between Ratchet and Astro have increased by a lot. So it should have a potential bigger launch.
Free copies don't count as sales on Sony’s data, they actually detract from long time sales numbers.
True but these are not official press made Sony numbers these are numbers that leaked from internal databases due to a hack.
Japan is a very different market compared to the UK.
In Japan Kirby was the 4th best selling game of 2022 according to Famitsu.
Kirby was the 31st best selling game in the UK in 2022. But since Nintendo don't submit digital data to the UK charts, lets boost it up and say it was the 20th. (its not present in the physical only top 10)....
There's really not much on Astro's global LT sales to deduce from incomplete UK launch week sales
Rift Apart was 3.97m as of June 2023
Astro barely got any marketing and the game was a ps5 demo and nothing more came of it since till now
The problem is that mindset of yours. This idea that sony is a console for gamers who only want to play games like spiderman or god of war. And this sentiment is echoed through sony management it seems.
Playstation was built and popularised around a diverse genre of games, and continued that way for years. But it seems like theyre losing their grip.
Well that's no surprise, considering how popular ratchet is. Astro was just a demo that came with ps5 that most people probably didn't play through.
GotY season will give it a huge boost.
Naw, Platformer fans are on Nintendo... not Sony
The only boost its getting is a bundle or free with PS Plus.
Didn't Rift Apart only sell 2.7m lifetime?
Rift Apart sold 4 million in two years on PS5 alone.
Google shows 2.7m total sales. 4m possibly including the PC release
It sold 2.7~ million in year 1 and another 1.3~ million in year 2 on PS5 alone (the numbers are from the Insomniac leak, and the date is June 2023, a month before the PC version was released).
Will probably have long legs. Best non-Mario 3D platformer Ive played in a long time.
4 words: Astro Bot plagiarizes mario
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToX5Xldw3Ec
That’s 4 words because Astro Bot is two words.
You are right
PlayStation Gamers don't buy PLATFORMERS
If you want to play platformers you buy a NINTENDO lmao
Essay Pro