Just days after hitting PC, Returnal appears to be struggling to find an audience, and thus is off to the second-worst start for a Sony Steam exclusive.
Available for almost two years on PS5, Returnal hit PC on February 15.. It thus joins a growing list of Sony exclusives that are exported outside the PlayStation console market, as has been the case with games like God of War, Uncharted or Marvel’s Spider-Man recently. Unfortunately, despite the esteem success he was able to achieve with a number of players, The title of Housemarque starts rather timidly on this new platform.
A slow start for Returnal on PC
Indeed, for its first post-launch weekend, Returnal recorded a player peak of just 6,691 users, making it the second-worst start for a PlayStation exclusive on Steam.. To date, only Sackboy: A Big Adventure has done worse by settling for a peak of 610 players just since its release nearly four months ago. The roguelike is then just behind Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, the compilation comprising Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which climbed to 10,851 players on its side.
However, we are far from the top 3 formed by God of War (2018), Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Horizon Zero Dawn, which peaked at 73,529, 66,436, and 56,557 players respectively since launch. And given that none of them have managed to surpass that peak in the months or years since they hit PC, it’s unlikely that Returnal’s situation will improve anytime soon. I expect better results The Last of Us Part I, which will be the next PlayStation exclusive to land on Steam from March 28.
As a reminder, Return is now available on PS5 and PC.