The first sales figures of Anthem are in. However, the retail sales from the UK are not particularly good and could mean serious problems for the game.
For several days now, Anthem has been available and many players have dived into the new co-op shooter from BioWare. But how many players are there actually? Is Anthem selling well? The answer is a bit more complicated.
Because at least in comparison to other top titles, the retail sales figures of Anthem are rather low.
Only a quarter of Destiny 2: The basis of these statements are the sales figures in the UK. They are not representative of the whole world, but they often give a first impression of a game’s performance. This refers to so-called “box sales,” meaning the sales of the classic box version of a game. Digital sales are not included, as they are unknown:
- On the launch weekend, Anthem sold only about a quarter as many units as Destiny 2 – but had less time since the game was released on Thursday.
- In comparison with its predecessor Destiny (1), it’s even only 10% of the sold units.
- Even Mass Effect: Andromeda sold twice as much as Anthem.
- Anthem also lags behind the sales figures of single-player games, such as Kingdom Hearts 3 or the remake of Resident Evil 2.
The retail sales figures do not tell the whole story
Online sales are the big unknown: Nevertheless, all these sales figures should initially be taken with caution. Because Anthem can of course not only be purchased as a box version but also bought digitally or played in conjunction with the “Origin Access Premier” service on PC.
So how high the actual sales figures of Anthem are can only be guessed.
EA has estimated the digital sales on PS4 and Xbox One at around 47% for the past year – this at least suggests that Anthem is not doing very well.
It is known that there is a significant shift from “retail sales” to “digital sales.” When Destiny 2 was released, significantly more was sold in stores than today.
Fans are worried about support: In various discussions on this topic, initial fears and concerns from the community are already emerging. There are fears that EA could simply “drop” Anthem, as they did with Mass Effect: Andromeda. In this case, planned DLCs were simply scrapped and never released.
Are you surprised by these sales figures for Anthem? Do you think the game is performing better in other regions (like the USA)? Or are the digital sales figures perhaps much higher?
By the way: If you play Anthem, you should never stay too long in Freeplay…
