Sony’s strategy to bring its first-party games to PC is paying off. Here is how the ports of Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War, and other titles boost sales of PlayStation exclusives.
Last week, Axios’ Stephen Totilo pointed out how the launch of Marvel’s Spider-Man on PC boosted its sales in the US. The data was taken from the latest NPD Group report for August 2022.
In July, Marvel’s Spider-Man ranked as the 84th best-selling video game in the US (physical and digital copies combined). Following the successful release of the PC version, the game skyrocketed to 3rd place.
As Totilo noted later, Spider-Man is not the only PlayStation game that benefited from the PC launch. To illustrate his point, he shared a chart created by his colleague Tory Lysik.
As can be seen below, Horizon Zero Dawn has moved up from 89th to 12th place after its PC launch, while God of War has jumped from 146th to 5th place.
Days Gone experienced the biggest boost, climbing from 247th to 20th place. So Sony’s strategy seems to be working well.
It’s not just Spider-Man. Here’s how four PlayStation games shot up the U.S. sales charts when they were ported to PC
Chart by Axios’ @tblysik https://t.co/owk2s3K8WD pic.twitter.com/doQ4N2i7qQ
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) September 22, 2022
How are PlayStation first-party games selling on PC?
- In May, Sony updated sales data for its games on PC. Horizon Zero Dawn leads the list, with 2.3 million units sold and $60 million in revenue on PC.
- It is followed by God of War (971k units sold and $26.2 million in revenue) and Days Gone (825k units sold and $22.7 million in revenue).
- The figures have likely increased ever since, so God of War’s lifetime sales on PC could already reach 1 million units.
- PlayStation has yet to disclose official numbers for Marvel’s Spider-Man. But the game will probably become one of the company’s biggest releases on PC, giving its chart performance and over 26k positive reviews on Steam.
- On October 19, Sony will launch Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC, which will likely become a nice addition to the company’s catalog.
Sony’s growing PC ambitions
- In 2021, PlayStation acquired porting studio Nixxes Software to help bring more first-party games to PC. The team has already worked on Spider-Man’s remaster.
- Later that year, the company also launched the PlayStation PC label, which will be responsible for all future PC ports.
- Sony expects to earn $300 million off its PC releases during the new financial year ending March 31, 2023. It is a significant increase from $80 million and $35 million in the two previous years.
- The company also stated that PC and mobile titles will account for around 50% of its total revenue by the financial year ending March 31, 2026.