According to estimates from Alinea Analytics, Housemarque’s PS5-exclusive Saros had a ‘lukewarm start’ following its release on April 30, selling around 300,000 copies in the last two weeks and earning Sony $22 million in revenue.
The analytics firm notes that as Saros had a development budget of around $76 million, Housemarque’s latest effort may “struggle to break even.” However, its research noted that 40% of players who purchased Saros have played it for more than 15 hours, while 30% of the game’s owners have put more than 20 hours into the title.
Speaking on the data, Rhys Elliot, Head of Market Analysis for Alinea Analytics, commented, “That is pretty impressive engagement for a roguelike of this difficulty profile, only two weeks into release.” He went on to note that Housemarque’s decision to make the game more accessible than its previous title, Returnal, has resulted in 20% more players completing Saros so far — double the figure that Returnal achieved.
This is the silver lining in the data. Saros obviously isn’t pulling in casual PlayStation owners at the scale Sony and Housemarque might have hoped, but the audience that did show up is playing the hell out of it. That’s the audience that recommends games to friends, drives organic word-of-mouth, and converts at higher rates when the game eventually goes on sale or hits PS Plus.
Elsewhere, Elliot noted that the situation is quite different to when Returnal launched, which arrived less than five months after the launch of the PS5, at which point the console’s early adopters “were dying for something to play.” As such, the title became the first major first-party PlayStation game since launch, and also made ample use of the DualSense controller’s unique features.
Saros, Elliot continued, “launched not too long after Crimson Desert, Resident Evil Requiem, Hades 2 on PS5, Pragmata, and a whole bunch of rad 2026 games.” As such, it was “never going to do numbers like God of War or Ghost of Yotei,” describing it as more of a niche product.
It really is a shame, as Saros is a fantastic game and frankly deserves better numbers than this. But 3D bullet-hell-type games, especially those with a $70+ price tag, are a tough sell in today’s market, particularly without a big IP behind it, or a studio that’s recognised outside of the PlayStation hardcore. But there’s plenty to love about Saros. I’m loving it, and so are many others. It’s also already sold more copies than Marathon on PS5, so there’s that.
You read our full review of Saros here.
[Source – Alinea Analytics via VGC]