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Forums - Sales Discussion - Why don't more games give out 'Sold # Million' statements about consoles specifically?

This is just something I had been thinking about with the Switch, but it applies to the other ones as well. For a title that wants a bit of renewed attention, going 'Sold a million on platform X' is a good, catchy headline. It would only spark new talk of your game, and for an indie that seems so logical to do. 

Yet of the titles not first party-ish on the Switch for example, only Enter the Gungeon has done that. Why? 



The Democratic Nintendo fan....is that a paradox? I'm fond of one of the more conservative companies in the industry, but I vote Liberally and view myself that way 90% of the time?

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Not many indie games cross the 1 million threshold.
Additionally, for AAA games, even if they announce figures in the low millions it will potentially be spun into something negative. 1 million doesnt have the same appeal nowadays.



tag:"reviews only matter for the real hardcore gamer"

First off - selling a million copies is a hard feat for any smaller studio so we wouldnt see a ton of them anyway. But we have gotten a bit more numbers than what you are saying. Some by devs themselves and some by Nintendo. Why they dont promote big sales themselves, I dont know. Some like to be more transparent than others. I dont think high sales number ever made me buy a game myself.. I dont think it makes a big difference really.

Some known numbers below:

Stardew Valley - ~1M as of 180427
Enter the Gungeon - 1M as of 190302
Sonic Mania - 500K+ as of 180424
Overcooked - 500K+ as of 180427
Shovel Knight - 370K as of 180301

And as we got the top 10 best sellings Indies on Switch at GDC earlier this year we know a whole bunch others has sold a significant number (at least 371K assuming SK sold 0 units from march 18- march 19) And as that's clearly not the case it's most certainly higher than that in real numbers.

Other games confirmed to have sold more than SK as of 190321

Golf Story
Celeste
Graceful Explosion Machine
Dead Cells
Undertale
Overcooked 2

I would be surprised if more of these has not hit 1M at this point though.. specifically looking at Dead Cells, Overcooked 1+2 that all seem to always be high on the E-shop chart.

As a fan of sales numbers though. I would appreciate more transparency ;)



Because 99% of the people don't care how much a game(thing) has sold, the 1% is then again also divided by people who only care because they are fanboys/girls/trolls.

If you have a company yourself and you are doing financially well you normally don't like to point out publically how well you are doing (except if you are huge).

It would be like 'Our coca Cola light product has sold 7 billion bottels last year in Walmart!'






My thoughts are that perhaps they *are*, but it's news that just doesn't reach your media "bubble". With so much going on in the industry all competing for headline space, a game crossing the million mark isn't always relevant enough to make it beyond Twitter.