South of Midnight reaches over 1 million players less than a month after launch.

Draugoth

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Recently, Game Rant chatted with Compulsion Games CEO and Studio Head Guillaume Provost. During the discussion, Provost noted that South of Midnight had accomplished an impressive feat in reaching over 1 million players since its full launch on April 8, 2025. He went on to say why he thinks the game has landed so well for audiences, and how Compulsion endeavors to deliver quality experiences for Xbox Game Studios.

Article:
South of Midnight Hit a Major Sales Milestone
 
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Vast majority of users has got to be from GP. And even so, did that many actually try it? I doubt it.

Maybe when companies report # of players, it's not even players who tried it, but just downloads. I've done my share of downloads, but end up deleting it not bothering to try it.
 
"Players". The fake statistic that video game companies like to pimp in 2025 when their game failed commercially but they are trying to trick people into believing it didn't.
 
It has barely 500+ scores in MS Store and never was even remotely in top-50 most played.

At this point I'm convinced that MS is just feeding us with slop stats.

It includes folks like me who noped out of it after less than an hour. Either way, one million players after three or so weeks isn't really very impressive to me. Not saying it is bad either. Just....meh
 
Sheesh, that is a dreadful number considering it is on gamepass and it still took a month. I expect the sales are likely below 200K.

I did enjoy my 3 hours with it though. Chapter 3 had some amazing music and vibe, I am looking forward to playing more this weekend.
 
It has barely 500+ scores in MS Store and never was even remotely in top-50 most played.

At this point I'm convinced that MS is just feeding us with slop stats.
The definition of 'players' is completely arbitrary, there's no industry standard to measure it

I'm trying to wrap my head around a world where AC Shadows had 3 million "players" but this game had 1 million "players"

Obviously Ubisoft and Microsoft aren't using the same definition of "players" because there's no way an AssCreed game only had 3 times the number of "players" this random indie game had
 
I'm on Chapter 8. It's not great, but also not terrible.
Currently a 7/10 game for me that might go slightly up, down or even remain a 7.
 
Well, a million is nothing to be sniffed at, good on em 🤷‍♂️

As I said in a previous thread, I love the premise of games of this nature, I just won't tolerate racist bullshit, no matter what guise it takes in the medium I love

Even a whiff and you can fuck right off 💅
 
Vast majority of users has got to be from GP. And even so, did that many actually try it? I doubt it.

Maybe when companies report # of players, it's not even players who tried it, but just downloads. I've done my share of downloads, but end up deleting it not bothering to try it.

Track achievements, over 30% of Xbox gamers have fully finished the game.

It's a good game I'm yet to finish it, is it a $80 retail release? No. Perfect gamepass delivery between AAA titles.
 
It's a game I am glad I played, but will never touch again. Combat is so repetitive and the bosses were laughably easy.

Exploration, parkour, and even the lore were really cool.
 
My wife finished it last week, helped out a bit here and there, decent game, very good music, fuck splitting up the Huggin' Molly fight though, that felt like padding but at least the music was fucking nuts during that part.

 
Better than expected although still not good. Comparing this 1 million Game Pass players instead of copies to other AA budget games like Granblue Fantasy Relink that sold over a million copies and Stellar Blade that sold over 2 million copies.

Maybe it'll reach 1 million copies eventually if the leg and word of mouth if good enough.
 
Better than expected although still not good. Comparing this 1 million Game Pass players instead of copies to other AA budget games like Granblue Fantasy Relink that sold over a million copies and Stellar Blade that sold over 2 million copies.
Wait...have the parameters around AA budget changed? If those two games are considered just AA now, then we are in trouble.

I compare South of Midnight to Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and Kena is literally AA.
 
Wait...have the parameters around AA budget changed? If those two games are considered just AA now, then we are in trouble.

I compare South of Midnight to Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and Kena is literally AA.
I think Kena is an indie while South of Midnight is AA.
 
Huge bomb. 100 person studio taking 7 years, and this is what the get from it. Half the players of Hi-Fi Rush. Steam sales estimated between 38k and 64k. This studio is either done, or going to be put to work on a Minecraft spin-off or Call of Duty QA work.

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Wait...have the parameters around AA budget changed? If those two games are considered just AA now, then we are in trouble.

I compare South of Midnight to Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and Kena is literally AA.

Might not be totally accurate but should be close, Wukong, Stellar Blade, Granblue Fantasy Relink seems to be around that 50 million mark or a bit more. And from looking at South of Midnight, it definitely looks expensive enough to be in the same tier. Although just like how there are AAA games that cost a good amount more than other AAA games, the same would be for AA and A. So perhaps South of Midnight is among the lower budget AA game compared to things like SB, Wukong, and Relink.
https://www.google.com/search?sca_e...eEmrC70_sX4z3Zby79zYux8B5diilLo_mvCu3w&csui=3
AAA games typically have budgets ranging from $100 million to $200 million or more. AA games, on the other hand, fall into a budget range generally between $20 million to $50 million.
 
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With the budget and production values it had, Kena is considered indie now? Can more gaffers confirm this?
Yes? Wasn't it self published?

Kena: Bridge of Spirits has launched as a major success for Ember Lab. Having won both Best Independent Game and Best Debut Indie game awards at The Game Awards as well as a nomination for Best Art Direction, Kena: Bridge of Spirits went on to collect nominations in 2022 for outstanding achievement and art awards at the D.I.C.E. Awards, SXSW Gaming Awards, New York Game Awards, Golden Joystick Awards, Annie Awards, and more.
 
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