[UK Physical Charts] Death Stranding 2 launches 66% lower than Death Stranding 1, 33% lower than Astro Bot

Funnily enough the first Death Stranding released in 2019, the following year with the pandemic we saw a huge shift to digital in the UK.

In Asia, however, we didn't really see that shift, physical is still huge there.
 
Not surprised based on my own anecdotal group of gamers - that are 90% physical for big titles - of those of us that bought the original, 3 of us loved the game, one of which was a digital buyer, and the rest all found it a drag or quit it in under 10hours.

This launch, only the other two that liked it bought it, 1 physical, 1 digital and I'm wanting it but have bought nothing on PS5 since the external PS5 Pro drive strategy emerged and set the question in my mind: am I'm done with PlayStation? Between all the anti-selling friction in the industry now -PSN store completely noncurated slop every, high pricing because of the slop, day one DLC carve outs, PC ports, lack of good hardware use - I'm not in any rush to buy any game at full retail price, now especially when it is so hot in the UK and I don't even want to use my PS5 in this weather.

When you factor in that I'm 5-6years older as a parent since I last struggled to complete DS1 in the twilight hours - took me 80hrs IIRC - there are so many forces eating my desire to play that it is no wonder I didn't go to buy the game to depreciate in my collection. Will probably buy discounted at Christmas to play in the cold when I can carve out that time commitment.
 
NastyPasty said:
You can have all the analysis you want if you engage his company and are willing to pay. The rest of us rely on scraps. Same with Piscatella, they've got to make a living.

He will have the figures, and if he says Astrobot leant towards physical media in the UK there's no reason to disbelieve him.
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I'm not disbelieving, if he writes something like that, back it up with some reasoning.
 
Everyone is saying it is because physical sales have declined since 2020, but DS2 sales are 33% lower than Astrobot which is relatively recent title. I think DS1 filterd out many players.
 
The game is extremely niche. Moreover people didnt know what to expect from the original, now they know whats up they realise the sequel is not for them.
 
Dring is posting another misleading spin? Who could've thought.

Game tracked for 4 days instead of a full week and had a very popular and digital-only early access that's not tracking in physical sales. Astro physical was also like $60.
 
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Exactly as i expected. You do not hear many people talk about this game, when compared to DS1 on launch. The gameplay forumula of this game isn't exciting at all, so if you've played the first, you've pretty much seen most of DS2.

I just hope this is the last game of the series. Kojima needs to stop wasting time on games like these, and make something proper. Horror game in space similar to Dead Space but with a complex and fuckedup story. Come on, i need this.
 
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UK physical sales are pretty much dead at this point.
It's just a misleading data point until digital sales are added.
This game also had a digital early access period.
We'll see how the game will actually perform also worldwide, it's a fantastic game but the genre is not for everyone and not for people who disliked the original.
 
ArtHands said:
Releasing the game around the start of the Steam Summer Sales is a bad idea.
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what-meme.gif
 
Nocty said:
The game is extremely niche. Moreover people didnt know what to expect from the original, now they know whats up they realise the sequel is not for them.
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A cinematic, action packed, story driven and a graphic showcase + Kojima game shouldn't be niche in a PlayStation console… This game is selling 33% less than a recent game that was considered niche too for the platform… What are the PlayStation 5 users playing?
 
ShaiKhulud1989 said:
Dring is posting another misleading spin? Who could've thought.

Game tracked for 4 days instead of a full week and had a very popular and digital-only early access that's not tracking in physical sales. Astro physical was also like $60.
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Yeah the early access is also probably a big factor. The early access version was just 10 bucks more and I wouldn't be suprised if most just went for the instead.
 
LordOcidax said:
Also 33% lower than Astrobot, this looking worse than the FF Rebirth situation.
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Different types of games (Nintendo-like platformers usually tend to have bigger physical sales), different prices (Astrobot was cheaper), different release dates and tracking weeks.

edit: as someone said DS2 had an early access version as well. you can't get that with the physical version that is shipped for a day one release. Also the digital deluxe edition incentive.

There's countless variables you're not even taking into consideration and the FFVII Rebirth comparison makes no sense.
 
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LordOcidax said:
A cinematic, action packed, story driven and a graphic showcase + Kojima game shouldn't be niche in a PlayStation console… This game is selling 33% less than a recent game that was considered niche too for the platform… What are the PlayStation 5 users playing?
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And yet, it will sell like three times as much as Metroid 4.

Death Stranding is a kind of niche game. Let's not even pretend this thing is mainstream, for fucks sake.
 
LordOcidax said:
A cinematic, action packed, story driven and a graphic showcase + Kojima game shouldn't be niche in a PlayStation console… This game is selling 33% less than a recent game that was considered niche too for the platform… What are the PlayStation 5 users playing?
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It's a walking/delivery simulator in a dystopian setting, no matter how many Hollyweird actors are crammed in, that's what people think about Death Stranding, even if DS2 was better in every way possible, association with the first game and its lack of gameplay, other than walking around a lot carrying shit would be difficult to overcome :pie_roffles:
 
Kacho said:
Yeah, I thought the same. I wouldn't be shocked if this ends up underperforming but we'll see in the coming weeks. Anecdotally there doesn't seem to be much buzz for it…
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I don't completely understand why this was made. DS1 stands on its own and the story was extremely... questionable. Was there a large demand for a sequel? I don't see it.
I liked the first game overall but I have no desire to play more of Death Stranding.
 
I'm really not that surprised. I'm sure the game is fine, but the first was pretty controversial.

Kacho said:
Yeah, I thought the same. I wouldn't be shocked if this ends up underperforming but we'll see in the coming weeks. Anecdotally there doesn't seem to be much buzz for it…
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The Rebirth thread. The XVI 10+ threads denying it. The Stella Blade thread. The Rise of the Ronin thread. The games aren't bombing, but they aren't blowing up either.
 
People shouldn't be shocked if DS2 flops tbh. Its a sequel to a game that didn't reach blockbuster levels of sales people were expecting. Also, Majority of Playstation players just want every game to be like TLOU with surface level gameplay mechanics or some boring safe as shit bloated open world game with fat ugly lesbians. Give them unique games with unique gameplay experiences (Returnal, AstroBot, Last Guardian, DS, etc) and they will toss it away since anything thats not a walk and talk gameplay segment is too complicated for them. They were even complaining that Astro Bot was too difficult. Its just the way it is. DS2's gameplay of planning routes, inventory management, and delivering multiple orders while using some ugly ass baby to avoid ghosts and enviromental hazards was never going to resonate with Playstation players.
 
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LordOcidax said:
A cinematic, action packed, story driven and a graphic showcase + Kojima game shouldn't be niche in a PlayStation console… This game is selling 33% less than a recent game that was considered niche too for the platform… What are the PlayStation 5 users playing?
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Quite frankly there has never been a time filled with so many games to play and the monthly sub model makes it easy to just not buy big releases / wait a while until they hit the gamepass.

My backlog is bigger than ever, and with so much other media competing for my time I do not desire to drop £70 on a new game that I have no time to play / know will be cheaper fairly soon and I have lots of other games to play for little or no cost.

Just my 2 cents of course but in short answer to your question 'what are Ps5 users playing' I see a huge amount of my friendslist still playing games that came out last year, and a lot of friends are still playing Expedition 33
 
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I love how peolple try to matetialize non-existent DS2 flop ignoring the fact that initial data-points are mostly lacking context and kinda irrelivant.

Maybe DS2 won't be huge hit, but Dring's data is shite.
 
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EN250 said:
d its lack of gameplay,
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Why this terrible take? I mean, DS has more mechanics and gameplay than any game you are playing right now.

Just say you dont like the game loop and that's fine but "lack of gameplay" only shows that you are trolling or have zero knowledge about the game.
 
Not only is digital way bigger now than in 2019 but alot of people have consoles without a disc drive lol. And many people bought early access which is digital
 
I hope we keep this same energy when the next Switch 2 third party bombs physically in the UK.

That said; I'm greatly enjoying the game and I'm sure it will be a huge hit when it gets ported to other systems over time.
 
LordOcidax said:
A cinematic, action packed, story driven and a graphic showcase + Kojima game shouldn't be niche in a PlayStation console… This game is selling 33% less than a recent game that was considered niche too for the platform… What are the PlayStation 5 users playing?
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Correction "This game is selling 33% less physical copies in a single country than another recent game"

Also this that i wrote earlier:
Tiago Rodrigues said:
Different types of games (Nintendo-like platformers usually tend to have bigger physical sales), different prices (Astrobot was cheaper), different release dates and tracking weeks.

edit: as someone said DS2 had an early access version as well. you can't get that with the physical version that is shipped for a day one release. Also the digital deluxe edition incentive.

There's countless variables you're not even taking into consideration and the FFVII Rebirth comparison makes no sense.
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How hard is it to analyze markets?

And Sony has 124M monthly users betwen PS4 and PS5. What i everyone playing? Live games...the games you all think are worthless to be investing on. Single players are having less and less sales overall in general when compared to their predecessors. The only games that are surpassing expectations are the ones that used to be niche (like Atlus games) and somehow go viral or surprise hits like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

If Uncharted 5 came out today guess what would happen? Less sales than its predecessor as well. Look how long games like Alan Wake 2 take to turn a profit. (and it's also a multiplatform release btw).
 
Tiago Rodrigues said:
Correction "This game is selling 33% less physical copies in a single country than another recent game"

Also this that i wrote earlier:

How hard is it to analyze markets?

And Sony has 124M monthly users betwen PS4 and PS5. What i everyone playing? Live games...the games you all think are worthless to be investing on. Single players are having less and less sales overall in general when compared to their predecessors. The only games that are surpassing expectations are the ones that used to be niche (like Atlus games) and somehow go viral or surprise hits like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

If Uncharted 5 came out today guess what would happen? Less sales than its predecessor as well. Look how long games like Alan Wake 2 take to turn a profit. (and it's also a multiplatform release btw).
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The PS5 user base is probably above 70M right now… So, the low user base is not an excuse for a AAA exclusive game designed specifically for the PS audience have low sales.
 
It's simple, the first DS sold because of Metal Gear. The sequel is riding off the first game which wasn't nearly as popular.
 
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LordOcidax said:
The PS5 user base is probably above 70M right now… So, the low user base is not an excuse for a AAA exclusive game designed specifically for the PS audience have low sales.
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This is physical only. Dring makes the point specifically that physical sales are lower across the board for PlayStation compared to last gen and this is a reflection of that.

"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."
 
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Tiago Rodrigues said:
You don't have nearly as much data as you think you do to say anything you just said on that post.
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My opinion is based on the data we have from this thread… If this data is an indicator, is going to be the FF Rebirth situation all over again… The Japanese data is going to be interesting too.
 
Bond007 said:
That being said anything launched in the thick of COVID is going to have some inflation.
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It launched before the scamdemic kicked in I think.

I would expect the restrictions (once they begun) to have skewed game purchases towards digital if anything.
 
Bond007 said:
Pretty misleading.
That being said anything launched in the thick of COVID is going to have some inflation.
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The 1st game was a giant, giant event in comparison to the 2nd. It was the 1st Kojima game after he left Konami. It was the 1st Norman Reedus game after all the Silent Hill teases. People still didn't even know what it was, but just knew about the 3+ insane and extremely cryptic trailers hyping it up. It was out at the height of PS4 popularity as well. I just don't think it's that shocking. As I said, the game was actually pretty controversial after it was released. Pre-release, the perception could not have been more different.
 
Why are people so stupid and buy this digital horseshit.

Also remember. This game launched 2 days early if you bought it digitally. Not 1:1 comparison.

The fucking psn version is 93$ here. I bought new retail disc for 72
 
Topher said:
This is physical only. Dring makes the point specifically that physical sales are lower across the board for PlayStation compared to last gen and this is a reflection of that.

"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."
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We went through the same thing with Rebirth. I'm not saying this is objectively a flop but I also wouldn't assume it's doing great digitally. There are a lot of reasons why this game could have underperformed.

Either way it will take a few weeks to see how it's actually doing.
 
LordOcidax said:
My opinion is based on the data we have from this thread… If this data is an indicator, is going to be the FF Rebirth situation all over again… The Japanese data is going to be interesting too.
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FF rebirth sold well but square enix expect every FF game to sell 15 million copies and it's not going to happen. They've screwed the brand over by going all in on the action combat.
 
Kacho said:
We went through the same thing with Rebirth. I'm not saying this is objectively a flop but I also wouldn't assume it's doing great digitally. There are a lot of reasons why this game could have underperformed.

Either way it will take a few weeks to see how it's actually doing.
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Rebirth is irrelevant cause square considers everything a failure nowadays. They've damaged the FF brand by releasing two stinkers in ff15 anf ff16 and by going all in on shit action combat.
 
The sales data is meaningless because of several factors.


1: Game just came out.

2: This dosen't take into consideration digital sales.

3: This is the UK only.
 
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