It’s easy to see a hit video game coming most of the time. It wasn’t exactly shocking when Red Dead Redemption 2 sold well, nor was it a surprise when the recent Resident Evil Requiem was a critical and commercial success. However, not every huge game comes from a storied team or is part of a reasonably consistent franchise. Some of the most earthshaking games come from out of nowhere as they forge a new genre, twist an old one, or scratch an itch many players probably didn’t know they had. So even though corporate greed and terrible management are rotting the industry from within, at least there are some games that can break through and provide some positivity.
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And while there are too many to list, here are just three hugely successful games that very few saw coming.
3) Helldivers 2
The original Helldivers was received relatively well. It garnered an average score of 82 and was a decent entry in PlayStation’s early selection of PS3, PS4, and PlayStation Vita titles that spoke to one another in some way or another. The co-op-focused nature of it and Starship Troopers aesthetic gave it some zest, but it wasn’t exactly something players kept going for some time. It received some DLC and was later ported to PC where it saw an all-time concurrent player count of 6,744, a number it is unlikely to ever come close to again.
Helldivers 2’s all-time concurrent player count on PC eight years later, on the other hand, was 68 times higher, coming in at an eye-watering 458,709 people. This discrepancy explains how big of a surprise hit the 2024 sequel was. A small isometric shooter that made a short-lived splash nearly a decade prior had become one of the most popular games on both PS5 and PC, something even developer Arrowhead Game Studios didn’t see coming. Johan Pilestedt, Arrowhead’s CEO at the time, said the game was “blowing through” its sales estimates in the early days. Gaming data firm Alinea Analytics estimated Helldivers 2 sold 20 million copies across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The PC sales are said to be around 13 million, well over the estimated 4.5 million units Horizon Zero Dawn sold on the platform, which is PlayStation’s next best-selling PC game.
Helldivers 2’s success was surprising because it was a niche IP that had been dormant for a decade that was developed by a relatively unknown team. It also probably didn’t help that it was being bunched into PlayStation’s shaky live-service push. However, its style, natural ability to create clippable moments, and newfound camera angle gave it the edge it needed to stick out and find a massive audience. So even though it had a somewhat rough launch, Helldivers 2 is still going strong with massive updates and is even being made into a film, showing how big a sequel can sprout from humble beginnings.
2) Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Given how broken the AAA industry is, it’s not shocking when people leave those large teams to break off and do something else. However, many of those games fail to make much of a splash or punch too far above their weight. The Callisto Protocol is one such title, as it was a shiny yet hollow horror game that didn’t even come close to capturing the magic of Dead Space, a classic many of the studio’s employees had helped create.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gave off those vibes during some of its early trailers and was being sold as an RPG coming from a few people who had left their jobs at Ubisoft. It looked like it could have promise, but, even if they seem just fine, first games from new teams usually go through some growing pains that keeps them from legendary status. But any skepticism surrounding Clair Obscur got Sword Balleted into oblivion once it came out. Critics and the general audience showered it with praise, some of whom described it as a shot in the arm for turn-based RPGs.
Despite being on Game Pass — which undoubtedly helped it spread like wildfire — Clair Obscur kept selling more and more, even though it came out on the same day as a remaster of a highly beloved RPG. As of October 2025, it had sold 5 million copies. It has undoubtedly blown past that number, since the number is from months ago and came after Clair Obscur‘s reported sales spike around its multiple nominations at The Game Awards.
It took home multiple trophies during that rendition of the Game Awards and was highly celebrated elsewhere around the industry. Not only did it rank highly for many outlets, it garnered multiple awards from the Golden Joystick Awards, the DICE Awards, and, most recently, the GDC Awards. Like Helldivers 2, it is also being adapted into a live-action film, which is an impressive feat for a budget-priced new IP from a relatively small core studio with no nostalgic ties.
1) Balatro
It’s clear when a game is a surprise hit when it completely blindsides the developer. Balatro’s mysterious solo creator who goes by LocalThunk said he only thought he would sell around 10 copies. And this dour prediction was only off by a factor of around a couple hundred thousand, as Balatro has officially sold over 5 million copies. This stat is from January 2025, too, so that discrepancy between expectations and reality has only grown.
As noted in the Game Maker’s Notebook podcast, LocalThunk only created games in his free time as a creative outlet and would send them out to friends. He knew he was perhaps onto something when one of said friends said they spent dozens of hours into what would become Balatro. When it did begin to shape up, the demo dropped on Steam and started gathering some buzz, especially as streamers like NorthernLion and Dan Gheesling began playing it in front of their sizable audiences.
It took time for this surprise to find its footing, though. Wout van Halderen, publisher Playstack’s communications director, explained as much during a GDC 2025 panel and went into how hard it was to market. On the surface, it didn’t seem like anything special since it isn’t exactly an action-heavy experience that can be sold through a screenshot or fancy trailer.
Balatro eventually was able to break through via word of mouth and became an indie juggernaut. It sat alongside huge AAA games during Game of the Year season and even showed up in TV shows like Black Mirror. Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker even called Balatro “possibly the most addictive thing ever created,” noting that humanity’s output would drop 25% once the mobile port dropped. DCU head James Gunn has also spoken about his love for the card game, showing how far it has spread. Balatro went from a game from a single person that almost didn’t see the light of day to something a few of film industry’s most famous creatives — along with a few million others — can’t stop thinking about.
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