Saros' low sales claims are looking increasingly likely.

Despite high scores from critics and positive reviews from the general player base, Saros did not seem to be a huge commercial success. Alinea Analytics estimates Housemarque's Returnal follow-up to around 300,000 launch copies, the type of launch that could mean the game may ultimately fail to break even on its investment. Things got more complicated last week when industry insider Jeff Grubb gave generally favorable comments to Alinea, further solidifying the likelihood of these estimates.

Now we have our first look at real data points, albeit purely chart-based, on Saros' launch window in the US, the game's largest market and an indicator for much of the West. It doesn't look very good.

number nine

During the period from April 5 to May 2, which covers Saros' first three days on the market, the game ranked only 9th overall. This puts Bethesda's 2023 relaunch of Starfield on PlayStation 5 behind the scenes, which seems rather quiet. However, there are caveats to consider. Starfield released the PS5 on April 7th, so there was a month's worth of data here.

It's impossible to say without seeing the raw numbers themselves, which are kept strictly confidential by US-based reports, but it's possible that Saros would be ahead of Starfield if there was more to it than the first big sales explosion. However, early sales are likely to be the strongest, so don't take this to mean we learn anything. naught In comparison.

Even better news is that Capcom's new IP, Pragmata, took second place. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream took first place. The game was destined to be a huge hit in Japan, but it wasn't certain it would reach the top level in the United States. Now we have the answer. No doubt aided by Tomodachi Life, the Nintendo Switch 2 was the best-selling hardware of its time.