Death Stranding Sets Another Impressive Sales Record

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Death Stranding is the second biggest PS4 launch of 2019 in the UK. Fast-forward a few days, and now it’s been revealed that Death Stranding has the best launch sales of any new IP in Japan this entire generation. In fact, it’s the biggest new IP launch in the region since the original Dark Souls, or if you don’t count that, the biggest new IP launch since the first Wii Fit. To achieve this, the game racked up nearly 186,000 sales at launch in Japan. The closest games to this are Judgment and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, both of which also released this year.

Now, it’s important to note we are talking launch sales of new IPs, meaning brand-new original games. There’s other titles that have sold more at launch in the region, but they haven’t been new IP. For example, the new Pokemon games will sell a lot more than this at launch in Japan, but they aren’t a new IP.

Now that we know the game sold well in the UK and Japan all that remains is the United States, the game’s biggest market. Of course, Hideo Kojima’s name being on the game was always going to push some units out the door, but not many were predicting the title to sell very well, and it may not, but it’s off to a good start. And it deserves it, because it’s one of the best games of the year, like our review attests to.

“The nucleus of Death Stranding is its slow burning story that brews classic sci-fi with old weird fiction on top of foundational ideas and perspectives redolent of writers and visionaries like Kobo Abe and Franz Kafka,” reads a snippet from our review. “Similar to Metal Gear Solid, the story of Death Stranding is a complicated multi-layered narrative that will make you feel lost, but never loses you, and pays back your patience with mind-shattering revelations and remarkable interweaving of personal, intimate moments with an exploration of life’s biggest questions. And the vehicle to all of this is Kojima’s signature style of storytelling, which evokes his past work, but also evolves it.”

Death Stranding is available on PS4, and is set to come to PC sometime next year.