It’s safe to say that the gaming industry’s obsession with live-service titles and microtransactions won’t wane anytime soon. However, the remarkable success of Remnant 2 has shown that there’s still a substantial market for smaller, more contained experiences. Remnant 2‘s sales have been so remarkable, in fact, that the game managed to dethrone Diablo 4 last month, skyrocketing to the very top of the July list of bestsellers.
This information comes from Mat Piscatella, a renowned gaming industry analyst who often posts sales information on his Twitter account. Piscatella’s stats summarize sales data from the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation, Steam, and Xbox platforms, ranking games based on their revenue. This isn’t a huge surprise, since Remnant 2 moved over one million copies in four days after its July 25 launch. That said, it does show something very important.
Remnant II from Gearbox Publishing was the best-selling game of July, instantly becoming the #18 best-selling game of 2023 year-to-date. Two other new releases appeared among the month’s top 20 best-sellers, including Pikmin 4 (#6), and Exoprimal (#16). pic.twitter.com/Od98nkhVLz
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) August 21, 2023
Not every new game needs to be a live service bonanza
Remnant 2 developer Gunfire Games already promised that there’s more content coming down the line. But the game doesn’t have a permanent loot treadmill, and it doesn’t try to commandeer all of its players’ time. Instead, it’s an AA production that delivers no microtransactions and doesn’t rely on time-gated content to keep players coming back. Its success is based purely on its merits as a game.
Obviously Diablo is a far more popular and renowned franchise than Gunfire Games’ Remnant. Yet Diablo 4‘s shoddy seasonal offering is sure to have played a role in allowing Remnant 2 to beat it in sales. Additionally, Piscatella reports that Remnant 2 is now the 18th best-selling new game of 2023. We’ll have to see how many players return to the game as it rolls out downloadable content in the future.
Diablo 4 is still going to be a more performant title with a longer financial tail for its developer, but the community is clearly eager for games like Remnant 2. Hopefully the industry will deliver more of them in due time.
