The MMORPG Black Desert was released on Xbox One in March 2019. Unusual: Developer Pearl Abyss announced the exact sales figures for the console version of the MMORPG in May 2019, along with the player count. What about the PS4 version of Black Desert?
Where is the information from? The information comes directly from the homepage of Pearl Abyss, the CEO announced it there on May 10th. However, there is a catch: The news is in Korean, and we have to rely on the power of Google Translate and a second translation program for the numbers and the translation.
This is how often Black Desert was sold on Xbox One: Pearl Abyss states that the game sold 240,000 copies in the first month after the launch.
These are the sales figures of Black Desert Xbox One in North America and Europe. The release there was on March 4.
How many players does Black Desert have in total? In April 2019, Black Desert announced (via Pearl Abyss) that they have now generated 1 billion USD in gross revenue with Black Desert. The game supposedly has 18 million registered players across all platforms in 150 countries.
With the 18 million, it can be assumed that a large portion falls on the mobile platforms iOS and Android.
Why is the interest in Black Desert Xbox One so high? As evidenced by screenshots from Reddit, the servers of Black Desert Xbox One were packed to capacity upon release. The MMORPG seemingly reached the upper limit of what Pearl Abyss expected in terms of player influx.
On Reddit, a user provided a plausible explanation:
- There is little MMORPG competition on the Xbox One except for ESO and TERA
- Moreover, Black Desert has a kind of “Witcher 2” feel and looks graphically impressive
- Additionally, the low price helps – this makes Black Desert Online the largest MMORPG launch since ESO on Xbox One
So there are strong “external impressions” that help in sales.
How much did Black Desert cost on Xbox One?
- The game costs in the standard edition only 9.99€ – but there were also more expensive editions
- 29.99€ – the standard edition with pet, 500 pearls, and 30 days premium
- 49.99€ – the deluxe edition with 60 days premium, 1000 pearls, and a tier 3 horse with horse equipment
- 99.99€ – the ultimate edition with 90 days premium, 3000 pearls, a tier 5 horse, and some additional goodies
Why is this so unusual? It is quite rare that we receive the exact sales figures of a game. This is usually a secret for MMORPGs.
Black Desert Mobile the big money maker
This is what Pearl Abyss says: The highlight in the first quarter for Pearl Abyss is the launch of Black Desert Mobile in Japan. Together with the launch of Black Desert Xbox One, this led to a growth of 31.3% compared to the 4th quarter of 2018.
Especially the success of Black Desert Mobile in Japan is noteworthy, the game reached the top 2 there and is still performing strongly.
For the future, they plan to release Black Desert Mobile globally; the second half of 2019 is scheduled for this.
Furthermore, Pearl Abyss intends to continue investing in technology and develop an “innovative next-gen engine,” and they also plan to expand to more platforms.
Is Black Desert also coming to PS4? There is nothing official about this yet – except for a half-sentence that they are planning “platform diversification.”
At E3 2019, it is actually expected that Black Desert will be presented for PlayStation 4 – a similar development occurred with PUBG, which was exclusive to Xbox One for one year before coming to PS4 a year later.
A PS4 release of Black Desert would be expected in March 2020.
