Astro Bot’s success has rubbed more salt into the already sore wounds of PlayStation flop Concord, which reportedly surpassed its global sales numbers with only physical sales in a two-day period in the U.K.
The two PlayStation exclusives could not have had more different experiences, with Concord dead on arrival and Astro Bot jumping from strength to strength. According to GameIndustry.biz head Chris Dring, sales of Astro Bot in the United Kingdom “aren’t huge,” but the only data available so far is only for physical copies. Despite this, he added that Astro Bot has “certainly sold more copies in the U.K. in just two days than Concord sold worldwide.”
Astro Bot outperforming Concord isn’t surprising, and it was always expected that it would sell more copies than the failed looter-shooter Concord, but the fact that it’s reportedly beaten it with just a small market of data is further evidence of Concord’s failure.
The title was abruptly pulled just two weeks after launch following poor sales and a dwindling player base. Just a few days after launch, the title dropped to less than 100 players on Steam. Though console players aren’t included in that metric, it doesn’t take a genius to see the huge problems the game faced.
Meanwhile, Astro Bot has achieved critical acclaim with a love letter to PlayStation’s deep history and the cameo-filled platformer now stands among the leading contenders to be crowned Game of the Year—a huge achievement in modern gaming, where the focus is on huge AAA titles, live-service entries, and sprawling budgets.
The success of Astro Bot is a piece of good news in what has been a rollercoaster ride for Sony and PlayStation in the past month, with another dip emerging following the reveal of the PlayStation 5 Pro, which attracted criticism from players for its lofty price-tag.
