Death Stranding 2 UK Retail Launch was 66% Below Death Stranding 1 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 July 2025 / 4,757 Views
The editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Game Business Christopher Dring has revealed Death Stranding 2 debuted in first place on the UK physical charts last week.
Death Stranding 2 first week sales were 66 percent lower than the original Death Stranding, however, it should be noted the digital market has grown since 2019. Launch sales are also 33 percent lower than Astro Bot.
"Death Stranding 2 was No.1 in the UK physical charts last week," said Dring. "Its launch sales were -66% lower than Death Stranding 1... but different eras. It's a far more digital market today. It's 33% lower than Astro Bot's launch, but that was also a physical heavy release, too."
Death Stranding 2 released for the PlayStation 5 on June 26, 2025.
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 follow the author on Bluesky.
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The further and further we go along in time, the less meaning UK physical charts will have. Physical sales might have been 66% lower, but if the digital sales were 150% higher, than the title is obviously more successful in its launch timeframe. And that is just the era we are living in now.
Correct. Titles like MK World should still be relatively high because the best version of the Switch 2 ships with it meaning that its physical sales will be tied to the conosle sales like we saw with Wii Sports. I completely expect overall sales of DS2 to be equal to or even higher than the original.
I just don't know the market for this game. The first game was a boring walking simulator and this seems like more of the same.
This right here is why games can sometimes feel samey and safe. Modern gamers don't buy new or different types of games at the volume needed to make up the development costs.
Players' critics are also not glorious but what's surprising? The only positive point of the game is the open world (tho I won't mention the giant moon [present only to show it in the trailers] that doesn't move and just disappear at dawn... No I won't). Everything else is an atomic disaster, just like the first one was. The gunfights outdated for a least a decade, the endless cutscenes with the story-telling for mentally ill kids, the story mode entirely made of the same secondary quests, the horrible gameplay mechanics... I feel like Kojima hasn't evolved one bit since MGS5. I mean, I think Kojima believes his name, Norman Reedus and some buddies in the "professional" critics are enough to sell a game. He makes a mockery of the players, so I hope he's not surprised that many are not happy with that.
The game would be 10 times more fun without a story mode and if we could only explore and enjoy the world. Same drill than I had for Starfield.
The story might be good for young ppl but to me, that was the same level than Horizon, especially for the narration. Clichés and baby story-telling all over the place... And those holograms who speak endlessly with a static camera... OMG, help!! Not mentioning Kojima's plagiarizing himself by copying many stuffs from the MGS games, especially at the end. A total joke, except for those who never played those games. There are way too many things that don't fit with what the game was supposed to be. Kojima added too many diferent things. To me, the result is a mess. That's litterally the same game than DS1.
First time it's novelty but it's just the same but bigger with slightly add stuff
Well Kojima did say he doesn't want the game going mainstream, and I'm glad he stuck with his vision. Alot of people will be missing out on greatness, but not me 😁
Physical media is dead amongst the younger generation. Digital consoles only next gen.
I hope it does well, even if I might end up complaining about it.
It should also be noted that more people had a PS4 when the first game came out compared to how many people own a ps5 when this game came out by about 20 million
And also digital is way higher with PS5 than PS4
