Wolfenstein II The New Colossus looked to have gotten off to a slow start at retail last year according to NPD, and a recent leak revealing player estimates for over 13,000 games suggests that things didn’t improve.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus earned critical acclaim from multiple publications —Twinfinite included— but its commercial performance was immediately thrown into question after the game went on sale just a month after launch. NPD reports later confirmed it was unable to breach the top 10 best selling games for the month of October at retail, following in footsteps of Prey, another Bethesda published title that also underwhelmed commercially earlier that year. A recent leak of Steam data confirms that Wolfenstein II The New Colossus recorded just 549,457 players as of July 1, 2018 —over a million less than its predecessor. In fact, it didn’t even sell as many as the standalone DLC for The New Order, The Old Blood, or Prey.
For reference, here’s a breakdown of the player estimates for Bethesda published games of similar genre according to the leaked Steam data:
- DOOM – 3,197,626
- Wolfenstein: The New Order – 1,819,928
- Prey – 704,179
- Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – 600,610
- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus – 549,457
- The Evil Within 2 – 227,653
Of course, these numbers don’t include PS4 and Xbox One sales, so the figures do not represent the total number of units sold at retail for each game. The New Colossus has also been on sale for the least amount out the four. But the disparity is too significant not to be able to draw a fairly grim conclusion: The New Colossus certainly did sell poorly, at least on PC.
If you’re not up to speed regarding the leaked Steam data, Ars Technica calls it “the most robust and precise data currently available regarding the relative popularity of a large proportion of the Steam library.”
The list in its entirety can be downloaded here as a CSV spreadsheet.
About the author
