Bigger Suprise Sales Success: Helldivers 2 or Palworld?

[chakkra]

Kyuu said:

firebush03 said:

Eh. More revenue doesn’t necessarily mean greater “sales success” as much as it means the publisher behind the game maybe milked consumers more for their money. And that’s a fair point regarding Steam top charts (assuming true? Do we have source for this?), though again, the higher consistent concurrent player count looks a lot stronger to me than placing more frequently in top sales charts. Palworld was frontloaded yes but it did a better job maintaining its base.

But that’s just my take. I can see where you’re coming from.

Steam top sellers and rankings are public information just like concurrent players. Helldivers 2 has been in the top 100 (typically in the top 50 and in the top 3 with every big update) for 129 consecutive weeks, while Palworld just re-entered the top 100 (currently 4th). Helldivers 2 also held its players better relative to its opening, but again, the comparison isn't exactly fair to Palworld which was in early access, and things may change going forward.

Revenue is a better sales metric than concurrent players. Palworld had an explosive start but it's clear that Helldivers 2 outlegged it until now.

I still lean towards Palworld being the bigger surprise, but an argument can be made for Helldivers 2 which achieved something that not a single sequel I know ever did. Helldivers 2 will sell like 6 times more than the first game, and generate like 20 or 30 times more money 🤑 Granted it costs a lot more to maintain and update, being a live service game and all that.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that any content that Palword has received in the past two years have been free content? If that's the case, then you are basically comparing revenue from pure units solds of one game to revenue from traditional online monetization of the other.