Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row are once again competing for the top spot, but even with a fresh game Saints Row loses a bout to decade-old GTA 5.
The recently announced Saints Row reboot hasn’t been performing as well as publisher Deep Silver and the parent Embracer Group would have certainly wanted. While the game has risen towards the top of the charts, it failed to get over the most important hurdle: dethroning Saints Row‘s one and perhaps only significant rival, Grand Theft Auto. The figures from European game sales data reveal that Saints Row took the second spot only after GTA 5.
Saints Row is the reboot of the 2006 action-adventure under the same name, which was considered the only rival of the open-world kind that could challenge Grand Theft Auto. Deep Silver published the reboot almost exactly a month ago and immediately was compared to both the current and upcoming GTA games. While the reception hasn’t been great, some online critics have disingenuously claimed Saints Row looks worse than half-baked GTA 6. Now, Europe’s video game industry has released the first sales data that includes the new Saints Row.
According to the game sales data, Saints Row took second on the chart. On the surface this doesn’t look like a bad placement. After all, Spider-Man Remastered was also released in August on PC and only managed to get sixth on the list. However, there was really only one game Saints Row was aiming for, GTA 5. Unfortunately for Saints Row, GTA 5 had an amazing month in Europe and was able to beat Saints Row for the top spot. It is evident that GTA 5 is still going strong as gamers wait for the successor. According to a prominent leaker, GTA 6 is expected to be released in 2024 or 2025.
Not everything is as bad for Saints Row as even the Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors’ comments can be interpreted. The game was released on the 23rd, so while the August data shows the initial launch spike, it only includes approximately a week of sales. Considering this, the game’s spot on the chart isn’t terrible by any means. Comparisons to GTA 5 are rough no matter how good the sales were, and Saints Row should try to veer off from direct comparisons to such a massively successful franchise that has turned into a phenomenon.
The placement, albeit maybe unfortunate for optics, doesn’t necessarily translate to as poor success as initial reviews of Saints Row might have suggested. The game is probably going to make a profit for the companies involved, as Wingefors suggested to investors. It is also worth noting that this is data for Europe only. NPD’s data for best-selling games in the United States revealed that Saints Row managed the third spot on consoles, while GTA 5 was nowhere to be seen on the charts.
Saints Row is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: GamesIndusty.biz
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