This year has had its fair share of shadow drops. We got The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, along with the surprise Pokemon Friends and several games arriving on Switch 2 out of nowhere. In the case of something like Elder Scrolls, a shadow drop can be incredibly effective. But sometimes, bringing an older game to a new platform with little to no promo can turn out to be less than ideal. Unfortunately, that was the case with a 2023 single-player RPG that shadow dropped on Xbox just last week. But it’s not all bad news.
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During a recent Xbox Partner Showcase, we got a surprisingly impressive slate of big news. This included the announcement of a Vampire Survivors spinoff and the reveal that Dave the Diver was finally coming to Xbox. In fact, the fishing RPG and sushi shop sim shadow dropped on Xbox the very same day. But from the looks of it, Xbox gamers weren’t exactly jumping at the chance to own Dave the Diver on their Xbox consoles. The announcement did, however, have another unexpected effect.
Dave the Diver Sales on Xbox Look Bleak, But That Shadow Drop Still Might’ve Been a Good Idea
Xbox was the final frontier for Dave the Diver, which was already available on PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. But it seems that the game might not have had a huge Xbox audience waiting with bated breath. According to player data reported by True Achievements, the game’s debut week placed it as the 421st most popular game on Xbox. That certainly doesn’t suggest a huge wave of new Bancho Sushi customers lining up to grab the game.
The game was up against a few factors that might’ve held it back. For starters, Silent Hill 2 also shadow dropped that same week. There’s also the fact that many gamers might prefer to stick to games that debut as part of Xbox Game Pass, rather than paying full price for a “new” game that’s been around for a few years. But even if that Xbox shadow drop trailer didn’t result in massive sales on the platform, it might have brought the game back to the forefront of players’ minds.
When Dave the Diver shadow dropped on Xbox, that news came alongside a new look at the game’s next content expansion. The In the Jungle DLC is anticipated to arrive next year, and the trailer gave us a new look at what’s to come. And while the trailer didn’t have many gamers rushing to buy a new Xbox copy of Dave the Diver, it might’ve sent them running back to Steam.
According to SteamDB, Dave the Diver has seen a fresh uptick in concurrent players starting around November 20th. That’s the same date as the Xbox shadow drop and new DLC trailer. The numbers didn’t really start to soar, however, until Dave the Diver went on sale as part of Black Friday on Steam. Compared to its $19.99 debut price on Xbox, it looks like many gamers grabbed it for $11 on Steam instead.
It’s unclear how much of the player uptick is due to the sale price and how much is players returning to play the game after seeing the DLC trailer. But it does seem like, even if the Xbox debut was a flop, Dave the Diver is still finding its audience on PC. And incidentally, that sale is still going until November 30th, so you’ve got one more day to get Dave the Diver on Steam for half off, if you still need to experience it for yourself.
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