Alinea Analytics: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is Selling Faster Than Major JRPG Franchises on Steam
Huge release for Sandfall Interactive & Kepler Interactive.
The report was released on May 2 and only covers the game’s launch sales.
At the time of writing of an original article, sales of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have surpassed 1 million copies (now it’s 2 million). According to Alinea Analytics estimates, 785,000 copies were sold on Steam and more than 350,000 copies on PlayStation.
On Xbox, the game launched day one on Xbox Game Pass, so the exact number of copies sold isn’t calculated. In the first week, 1.3 million people played the game.
In the first 7 days after launch, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 outsold other JRPGs on Steam, including those from major franchises.
In its first week, the game sold 3.3 times better than Persona 5 Royal; 3.9 times better than Persona 3: Reload; 2.3 times better than Final Fantasy VII Rebirth; and 2.3 times better than Metaphor ReFantazio, which was the latest hit in the genre.
Roughly a third of all Steam purchases came from China, making it the project’s largest market.
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On PlayStation, the situation is different. In the first 6 days of sales, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth leads by a wide margin (1.4 million copies). But Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is in second place - selling 343,900 copies, ahead of Metaphor ReFantazio (301,300), Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (282,200), and Persona 3 Reload (227,100) in the same period.
Comparison with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster Results
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster launched a couple of days before Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
On Steam, Oblivion Remaster sold 1.4 million copies in its first week, compared to 708,200 for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. On PlayStation, Oblivion Remaster sold 590,000 copies versus 343,900 for Expedition 33. On Game Pass, Oblivion Remaster was played by 3.2 million people, nearly three times more than Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
However, on day 7, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sold 77,000 copies on Steam - twice as many as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster.
In terms of audience overlap, the highest crossover was among Xbox players (understandable, as both games are available on Game Pass). On PlayStation, the overlap is 11.4%, and on PC, 6.5%.
❗️Alinea Analytics believes these products are in direct competition. Users had to choose what to buy.
Kinda interesting that a French "JRPG" is basically doing better and outselling pretty much every other JRPG franchise. A lot of Japanese developers need to step it up. The only one that seems to keep things close is SE with the Final Fantasy games.