Did TLOU2 ultimately underperform commercially?

[Alek]

Bad answer: lool what, stop trying to build a narrative that this game failed.

Real answer: Maybe? Who knows. The sales numbers were and will continue to be fantastic, I'm sure Sony will come out soon with some astonishing figure of how many copies were sold. But since we will probably never know how much the development cost and how much was spent on marketing, the real answer will probably be hidden in some corporate Sony presentation. But I think it was a big success overall.

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While dev costs and marketing would have been steep there's no way they wouldn't cover them with the sales numbers we're looking at here. I don't know what the physical split (e.g. how much it costs to produce discs, shipping and how much retailers take), but digital sales alone will be around half of that 7m number (based on trophies tracked) which is over 200 million USD in digital sales alone.

I don't think anyone needs to worry...

 

[HardRojo]

Just woke up and why the hell is this thread still up? Numbers were discussed in the first 2 pages already and the premise makes no sense. Plus hasn't someone with knowledge of numbers mentioned that the game has sold greatly? Page 6 has a really terrible post that sounds just like those YTers pushing weird narratives lol, wow...

 

[gundamkyoukai]

While dev costs and marketing would have been steep there's no way they wouldn't cover them with the sales numbers we're looking at here. I don't know what the physical split (e.g. how much it costs to produce discs, shipping and how much retailers take), but digital sales alone will be around half of that 7m number (based on trophies tracked) which is over 200 million USD in digital sales alone.

I don't think anyone needs to worry...

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Yep .
TLOU2 most likely made back in budget and marketing with those 4 million in 3 days sales alone thanks to DD.
That one thing people don't have to worry about .

 

[ZeoVGM]

No.

 

[Litigator]

This thread will be fun to revisit whenever the next sales milestone gets announced.

 

[ZeoVGM]

it definitely didn't sell as well as expected. there are loads of copies selling at discount in stores i've been to.

as a sequel to a fantastic game the reason it sold as well as it did was because people bought it cause they enjoyed the first. i suspect many people ended up regretting the purchase. once the word got out then i'm sure that put a lot of people off touching it. i was lucky enough to read the story before it released and decided not pay full price. my friend gave me a loan of his copy to play. really disappointing game. i was so excited for it. it was easily one of my most anticipated games of 2020 because i loved the first.

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You're wrong.

Also, this is basically a YouTube comment.

 

[CaptainK]

The only reasonable way to take a look at this would be to see what kinda legs TLOU1 had during its first few months

...and looking at the NPD sales archive at the old place TLOU1 had dropped out of the top 10 by its third month already.

This data means nothing.

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To add to that, rankings aren't a good indication of actual dollar sales. Just looking at the NPD Sept 2020 thread, for example, Marvel's Avengers is #1, but its sales were probably worse than most other chart-topping releases. And there's nine Nintendo games in the top 20, which never happened in the Wii U days. TLOU2 could very well be tracking ahead of TLOU1, but the legs on those Nintendo games are unbeatable. So the actual sales of the #20 ranked game can fluctuate just as with the #1 ranked game. Until we get a press release, we got nothing.

 

[DavidDesu]

I'd imagine a part of that drop off is just that it was such a highly anticipated title, a huge chunk of people were always gonna buy it day one. Sadly I imagine the "controversies" helped scare some people off, which is really sad considering as a game it is absolutely incredible, the pinnacle of this type of game. Sadly the FUD spreaders (discussing poor gameplay as much as the other "issues") might have dented the casual enthusiasts enthusiasm for the game, completely undeservingly I'd say. The game is a masterpiece. Challenging for sure, and a bit too dark for some, but a masterpiece.

 

[crimsonECHIDNA]

Why is it that it seems that ND games seemed to get slapped with this 'mass murderer' tag? A majority of games involve injuring, killing enemies in one way or another but I can't recall them ever being tagged as mass murderers.

What gives? Is it because they have a more realistic depiction vs other games eg your Cods or your Dooms or whatever?

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Once upon a time Yahtzee said it as a joke about Uncharted and people have been parroting it ever since.

 

[RespectThySole]

It was never going to outsell Spider-Man. And besides that game, it's only behind God of War after 4 months. Can't realistically expect it to be anywhere near 20 million. TLOU 1 did that cross 2 generations, many sales, bundles, etc.

 

[dep9000]

I think it must have underperformed. It sold well out of the gate but fell off the top seller lists pretty quickly. With the ps5 version and added multi-player maybe it can get a second life. Tlou did well on ps4 so it could happen again

 

[Merv]

Not all, but some of these "TLoU2 overwriting well known gifs" are definitely cursed.

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.

 

[ClickyCal']

It's on its third OT here. How many single-player story-driven games get that?

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Yea. GoT supposedly had "more hype" than tlou2, yet barely made it through one spoiler thread.

 

[Deleted member 52190]

Yea. GoT supposedly had "more hype" than tlou2, yet barely made it through one spoiler thread.

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Naaa, GoT never had more hyped.

What GoT has is a very good word of mouth that is helping the game in terms of sales.

 

[zaxil456]

If you didn't like the game, yes.
If you did like the game, no.

In all honesty, I'm sure it did fine. There's no sense in comparing it to TLOU1's sales until the remaster for 2 comes out. That's guaranteed to be a big hit.

I will say, I didn't realize it dropped off the charts so fast. That is indeed surprising.

 

[ClickyCal']

Naaa, GoT never had more hyped.

What GoT has is a very good word of mouth that is helping the game in terms of sales.

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Well yea, but TLOU2 also has good word of mouth. The huge majority like the game.

 

[Deleted member 52190]

Well yea, but TLOU2 also has good word of mouth. The huge majority like the game.

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But that has nothing to do with your coment?

 

[ClickyCal']

But that has nothing to do with your coment?

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I mean I was agreeing with him about how Tlou2 actually has a ton of hype, which equals word of mouth.

 

[Fart Master]

Last of Us 1 sold around 20 million. Uncharted 4 sold at least 16 million. So yeah.

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That's lifetime

 

[Xando]

Dunno but it definitely feels like it didn't have the word of mouth the first game had

 

[Deleted member 52190]

I mean I was agreeing with him about how Tlou2 actually has a ton of hype, which equals word of mouth.

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No, hype as nothing to do with word of mouth.

There are many games with good hype and terrible word of mouth and the oposite happens as well. What word of mouth does is it extends the sales of a game, which is something the games like GoT got.

I have followed both TLOU2 and GoT player base since the beggining, and if the sales are around the same i whould say that both games have perform similiar in termes of week on week sales , obvious TLOU2 sold more because of being a sequel instead of a new IP.

 

[PlayerOne]

I think it didnt do as amazing as they had hoped but it still did good. I think they must have a lot of stock left in my region cause its on sale very often.

 

[Palette Swap]

Honestly, measuring the legs of frontloaded blockbusters, that might keep selling under the radar of charts, has always been a perilous exercise without any data.

This thread is just another example of that.

 

[-girgosz-]

A ND dev posted this a couple weeks ago

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Tlou 1 is already having more NEW players than Part 2 unfortunately. I know it was on PS Plus but it's not a good sign of legs. It's a 7 year old game.

 

[abellwillring]

People have a misconception about Sony software sales since they heavily discount their titles and then they sell for years and years at $10-20 via regular digital sales. They see the total sales number and don't recognize the fact that probably 70% of it is at $20 or less. That will be the same with TLOU2 as well — it'll sell for awhile.

 

[thediamondage]

Just curious but what would be a "good" number after say 12 months? 7m? 10m? 15m? After 2 years, should it be above 15m? 20m? Just wondering what would be considered great so we can look back in a year or two and see how reality matched up with expectations.

 

[Dever]

Many of the biggest influencers like Pewdiepie and Angry Joe disliked the game, I imagine that must've cost them some sales. Probably not enough to be considered "disappointing", though.

 

[Deleted member 52190]

Just curious but what would be a "good" number after say 12 months? 7m? 10m? 15m? After 2 years, should it be above 15m? 20m? Just wondering what would be considered great so we can look back in a year or two and see how reality matched up with expectations.

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For a game like TLOU2 10M is a good number after 12 months, to be great it whould be something like 12/13M.
God of War sold 10M in 12 months, that is the fastest title to reach 10M in less time, without counting Spider Man.

 

[Aprikurt]

Many of the biggest influencers like Pewdiepie and Angry Joe disliked the game, I imagine that must've cost them some sales. Probably not enough to be considered "disappointing", though.

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Good. Fuck Pewdiepie and fuck Angry Joe.

 

[jaymzi]

Tlou 1 is already having more NEW players than Part 2 unfortunately. I know it was on PS Plus but it's not a good sign of legs. It's a 7 year old game.

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Gamstat is not really accurate for games after a while. 44 million for TLOU1 and 24 million for GOW2018 according to that site.

 

[Wallace Wells]

I think it must have underperformed. It sold well out of the gate but fell off the top seller lists pretty quickly. With the ps5 version and added multi-player maybe it can get a second life. Tlou did well on ps4 so it could happen again

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Just as an example It's been out 4 months and it's still in the top 10 selling games on PSN in Australia

 

[ClickyCal']

Many of the biggest influencers like Pewdiepie and Angry Joe disliked the game, I imagine that must've cost them some sales. Probably not enough to be considered "disappointing", though.

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Cost a miniscule percentage that won't even move the needle.

 

[Canas Renvall]

I thought about comparing it to TLOU1's initial sales, but the PS3 sold significantly less units than PS4, so seemed somewhat apples and oranges.

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As opposed to comparing a 4-month old game to a 7-year-old one...?

 

[Fumpster]

It kinda seems like the kind of game where the vast majority of people buying it got it within its first 2 months. It wouldn't be very surprising since it's such a story-heavy sequel to an acclaimed game.

 

[redflamingolingo]

Knowing Sony, a re-release on the PS5 will generate a lot of sales. Unfortunately, I don't feel like they would give out a next gen patch for free.
I picked up the remaster of the first one on the PS4, and in my mind, it was definitely worth it.

But I thinkMS has changed expectations a bit for me.

I didn't buy TLOU2 on the PS4, but will definitely get it whenever the remaster comes out.

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Waiting for the PS5 remaster for a second playthrough on grounded with film grain removed.

That'll be just....yea

 

[reclaimerzzzzz]

Gamstat is not really accurate for games after a while. 44 million for TLOU1 and 24 million for GOW2018 according to that site.

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The website translates its data based on trophies, right? So, it's possible it was somewhat accurate before both games were made available via PS+, PSNow or both (in the case of TLOU1).

 

[Phendrana]

I thoroughly dislike it, but I'd still hope it does huge numbers sales wise. Single player games doing well is always a good thing, especially ones with LGBT main characters.

 

[Voke]

never been happier to see less discussion of a game before. every online conversation I saw for this game was honestly bullshit. turns out that gamers are too baby to be able to accept that

Spoiler

joel dies

. Amazing game but Jesus the controversy was annoying as hell

 

[nib95]

Tlou 1 is already having more NEW players than Part 2 unfortunately. I know it was on PS Plus but it's not a good sign of legs. It's a 7 year old game.

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That's not at all surprising. Not only can TLOUR be purchased for just £11 brand new (discounted on top of being a PlayStation Hits title) whilst TLOU2 is still very close to full retail price, but TLOU is also available on PS Now and was available on PS Plus too.

Most people who still want to play TLOU2 but haven't yet, are going to be ones waiting for it to notably drop in price.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Last of Us 1 sold around 20 million.

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In 7 years on two platforms.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

I can confirm TLOUII is doing/has done extremely well. The next time a figure is announced expect to be astounded. This game has done tremendous numbers and I couldn't be prouder.

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Awesome to hear 😎

 

[m051293]

Sony's got Q2 earnings report coming the next week or so (Jul-Sep), so hopefully we get updated figures.

 

[Deleted member 52190]

Sony's got Q2 earnings report coming the next week or so (Jul-Sep), so hopefully we get updated figures.

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Yah is on 28, night of the 27 in USA and morning of 28 for EU.

This report will miss the first 2 weeks of TLOU2 tough.

 

[m051293]

Yah is on 28, night of the 27 in USA and morning of 28 for EU.

This report will miss the first 2 weeks of TLOU2 tough.

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Yeah but Sony doesn't offer quarterly sales for software. After launch, they just give periodic LTD shipment updates, so hoping for that - they can tell us where it stood LTD as of Sep 30, 2020.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Tlou 1 is already having more NEW players than Part 2 unfortunately. I know it was on PS Plus but it's not a good sign of legs. It's a 7 year old game.

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The first game has been "free" on PS Plus and it's on Playstation Now and even if you buy it new, you get it by 10/20 euros or dollars.
The 2nd game barely had promos and the ones it has are not definitive. Officially it still has its initial price. 70 / 80 dollars euros as we speak on Ps Store.
No comparision whatsoever.

Also...it was the 2nd game coming out that made the 1st game have some renewed interest in the first place.

 

[Deleted member 52190]

Yeah but Sony doesn't offer quarterly sales for software. After launch, they just give periodic LTD shipment updates, so hoping for that - they can tell us where it stood LTD as of Sep 30, 2020.

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They are starting to give first party sales, but is everything put together in a single pie.

Maybe one day they will start to give sales by title.

 

[Parcas]

I mean...it was contending against a pandemic, got delayed, and had its plot leak (in addition to people actively dumping on it every chance they had).

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I am not saying it is deserved or not i am saying it happened

 

[NekoNeko]

lots of people in here don't understand that underperforming and making lots of money aren't mutually exclusive things.
i'm not sure if this is true for TLOU2 however, Sony could've hoped for even more sales, we don't know.

 

[Curufinwe]

Well yea, but TLOU2 also has good word of mouth. The huge majority like the game.

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More than 60% of players completing the story is a huge percentage. Significantly higher than even Spiderman and God of War. It may eventually go down as it sells more copies, but it's still a hugely impressive number.

 

[-girgosz-]

The first game has been "free" on PS Plus and it's on Playstation Now and even if you buy it new, you get it by 10/20 euros or dollars.
The 2nd game barely had promos and the ones it has are not definitive. Officially it still has its initial price. 70 / 80 dollars euros as we speak on Ps Store.
No comparision whatsoever.

Also...it was the 2nd game coming out that made the 1st game have some renewed interest in the first place.

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Yes, it being free on PS Plus is literally in my post you replied. It's a combination of those things and Part 2 having mediocre legs if you compare it to other high profile PS exclusives on gamstat. You just can't spin that. I hope the legs will pick up somehow, I loved the game.