NieR: Automata - 1 Million Sales

TrustedReviews reports that NierR: Automata is very succesfull right now:

NieR Automata manages to hit one million sales worldwide

Total shipments and digital sales of critically acclaimed RPG NieR: Automata have reached 1 million, Square Enix has announced.

Launching for the PS4 and PC earlier last month, the unusual RPG appears to have gone down a treat with gamers across the globe.

These sales figures are almost definitely an improvement over its predecessor, NieR, which managed to sell only 134,000 copies in Japan during its first seven months of release.

In comparison, Automata sold an impressive 198,000 units during its launch week alone in its home country. Positive critical reception alongside word of mouth appear to have helped international territories considerably.

Kirk McKeand scored NieR: Automata 8/10 in his review, praising its satisfying combat, brilliant soundtrack and compelling storyline.

“Despite some minor annoyances, NieR: Automata is brilliant. It strikes the balance between RPG and action game unlike anything else in the genre. It’s a game you kind of have to meet halfway, with a story that gets more complex and interesting the more you prod at it. If you’re willing to commit, though, you’ll be rewarded.”

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More information.

(tries to thumbs up the news article)

Ha, now I can do it!

At same time Tyranny and Torment sold about 1/10 of that. I can understand they feel flawed (for me Tyranny is a great one with an original blueprint, but I get it's not a general opinion), still it could shows the state of WRPG, bad with help of a community of players that is very toxic.

@Dasale, I think it's probably more of a graphics issue than a gameplay thing. Although gameplay is important as well, but I imagine that many new JRPGs do well because they also have fantastic 3D graphics. It's a much harder sell to sell someone Torment or Wasteland 2 or what not. More casual players are going to flock to the graphically impressive games.

But that said, I think RPGs like Pillars and Torment and what not are fine. Torment I feel will sell much more over time, a slow burn if you will, and Pillars 2 seems like it will be a pretty decent hit as the Kickstarter was very successful. Of course, Divinity: Original Sin 2 will probably come out on top again, unless the first game was lightning in a bottle. But from what I've seen from the game itself, it's going to be very promising and should do well. I think D:OS sold the most of any of the Kickstarter RPGs so far.

NieR: Automata was hyped/marketed a lot more than Tyranny/Torment were.

Is that a guess or actual numbers ? I would have thought both T's sold over 500K but perhaps I'm totally wrong (that is a guess on my part).

Dasale said:

At same time Tyranny and Torment sold about 1/10 of that. I can understand they feel flawed (for me Tyranny is a great one with an original blueprint, but I get it's not a general opinion), still it could shows the state of WRPG, bad with help of a community of players that is very toxic.

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you said:

Is that a guess or actual numbers ? I would have thought both T's sold over 500K but perhaps I'm totally wrong (that is a guess on my part).

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SteamSpy is considered to be quite reliable these days. Tyranny has approximately 150K owners while TToN has a little over 100K.

Note that "owner" does not necessarily mean a sale. It just means that someone has registered a key on Steam and now owns the game there (so this includes e.g. promo/review keys or bundle keys etc.).

TToN had 74K backers by the way. It is anyone's guess how many of them grabbed a Steam key rather than GOG (or how many requested a refund or did not register their keys yet) but Steam keys were available earlier than GOG keys so, aside from the generally higher popularity of Steam, there is a good chance that a sizeable chunk of backers went for Steam.

So, if we subtract the backers then TToN has done quite poorly in sales on the PC, probably only somewhere between 30K and about 70K max.
It has only once appeared in the weekly Steam top 10 sales in its release week, too, never to be seen again (7th place back then).
Unless the game sold substantially better on consoles then chances of a sequel should be considered rather slim at this point.

azarhal said:

NieR: Automata was hyped/marketed a lot more than Tyranny/Torment were.

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Tyranny is also PC-only, unlike the other two, and its budget was a fraction of Torment's, and in turn Torment's was a fraction of NieR: Automata's. It's silly to compare the sales of these 3. Low-budget niche RPGs that aren't aimed at the masses sell less than big publisher releases that are, news at 11. If it's viability you're worried about, what matters is whether the games were profitable. One of the nice things about Kickstarter games is that as long as they stay within the KS budget, they are virtually guaranteed to turn a profit, as the cost of development was already covered by KS "pre-orders" right off the bat (though I don't know that Torment stayed within the KS budget, probably not…)

Fluent said:

@Dasale, I think it's probably more of a graphics issue than a gameplay thing. Although gameplay is important as well, but I imagine that many new JRPGs do well because they also have fantastic 3D graphics. It's a much harder sell to sell someone Torment or Wasteland 2 or what not. More casual players are going to flock to the graphically impressive games.

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It doesn't help that I don't play much JRPG.

But great 3D. i suppose it's about the style. Random pick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjBoGsMu_aY

I see desert 3D (empty up to hurt eyes), cartoon choice, that's probably where WRPG are screwed up, they don't have the fan bases allowing use more simplified 3D with a choice of cartoon with a style requesting as much if not more talent but less time and work to make the 3D and textures.

JRPG fans are more tolerant in my opinion, yeah it's just a guess.

Tyranny and Torment just don't appeal to me. I never had any interest in either and doubt I'd buy either even on a big sale. I tend to buy just about any "old school" RPG but neither of these really appeal to me.

Niche games get niche sales. And since neither of those games feature an anime hentai model flashing her panties constantly, they're missing out on the entire perv market.

I'm also not into Nier Automata since I detest consoles and detest games that are 99% only good with controllers (ie, it's incredibly rare that anybody reports a good experience with that game on kb/m). Part of me want to suck it up and plug in the xbox controller I bought and NEVER use because this game gets so many rave reviews/comments, to try to get over this, but then...

When I look at footage of Nier, it all looks the same to me. I've watched a lot of video to try to convince myself to buy the game but every trash battle, every boss, and every giant boss fight all look the same to me. Jump around like a crack head and button mash. ZzzzzZzzzzzZzzz. And in between, run, run, and run Forest run (and flash those panties of course). ZzzzzZzzzZzzz.

So many say this is an amazing game but at the same time, these people are also raving about 2B's anime butt and are drooling over trying to get upskirt shots of a pixel android (it's not even a computerized WOMAN for eff's sake). So forgive me if I have a hard time accepting anything said people spew as any kind of intellectual argument in favor of the game.

DUDE, THIS GAME HAS AN AMAZING STORY. I CRIED. And if I twerk my joystick just right so I can see up 2B's skirt...wait..I think I can see....

This is one of those games that seem to have zero appeal for me, and yet a ton of people are raving about it.

I choose to accept that we're simply different and that we all like different things. I'll never figure it out, anyway

1 Million in sales or 1 Million copies? Huge difference. It was TLDR, so I didn't see if they specified. I'm replaying Diablo III while I wait for something decent to release. My last new game was Mankind Divided, I think.

Hate to repeat myself, but this is what I howled about on a different forum here earlier (and got nearly universal hatred for it, heh-heh).

To sum it up: RPG is a broad term and totally mass market nowadays, and therefore must cover consoles and the new generation of gamers as well.

What many of us like to love here at RPGWatch is the old-school, traditional, western computer role playing game.
Irony is that it's now a minor subset of the RPGs - while this was the originator of the genre Eons ago.

duerer said:

Hate to repeat myself, but this is what I howled about on a different forum here earlier (and got nearly universal hatred for it, heh-heh).

To sum it up: RPG is a broad term and totally mass market nowadays, and therefore must cover consoles and the new generation of gamers as well.

What many of us like to love here at RPGWatch is the old-school, traditional, western computer role playing game.
Irony is that it's now a minor subset of the RPGs - while this was the originator of the genre Eons ago.

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I love a lot of games and a lot of RPGs. I would much rather have a broad coverage than a super selective coverage.

But that's me

crpgnut said:

1 Million in sales or 1 Million copies? Huge difference

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Yeah, when it's reads like it's intentionally vague I assume dollars and they're trying to make it sound like units. But this part:

In comparison, Automata sold an impressive 198,000 units during its launch week alone in its home country.

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Kind of indicates it must be units because unless they were selling in Japan for $5 that'd be over $1m right there.

Dasale said:

I see desert 3D (empty up to hurt eyes), cartoon choice, that's probably where WRPG are screwed up, they don't have the fan bases allowing use more simplified 3D with a choice of cartoon with a style requesting as much if not more talent but less time and work to make the 3D and textures.

JRPG fans are more tolerant in my opinion, yeah it's just a guess.

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Eh, the game looks like a graphically good 3D game, IMO, especially in comparison to an isometric game. If you show someone Wasteland 2 or Nier, I would assume that most casual gamers would rather play Nier being it is a 3D world with flashy graphics, fast, intense animations and just showcases quite a bit of graphical power. Even though isometric RPGs have made a comeback, your average mainstream gamer is going to be more interested in a 3D world.

duerer said:

Hate to repeat myself, but this is what I howled about on a different forum here earlier (and got nearly universal hatred for it, heh-heh).

To sum it up: RPG is a broad term and totally mass market nowadays, and therefore must cover consoles and the new generation of gamers as well.

What many of us like to love here at RPGWatch is the old-school, traditional, western computer role playing game.
Irony is that it's now a minor subset of the RPGs - while this was the originator of the genre Eons ago.

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And there are quite a few good RPGs to be found on platforms other than PC. The Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics game I'm playing now is a good example, and there's many more like that.

Voqar said:

I'm also not into Nier Automata since I detest consoles and detest games that are 99% only good with controllers (ie, it's incredibly rare that anybody reports a good experience with that game on kb/m). Part of me want to suck it up and plug in the xbox controller I bought and NEVER use because this game gets so many rave reviews/comments, to try to get over this, but then…

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Retire the Xbox controller and get a Steam Controller. Best controller I've used. I'm really enjoying playing my old-school CRPGs with a controller now.

dasale said:

At same time Tyranny and Torment sold about 1/10 of that.

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Because both were shit.

And its $1 MIL sales , not copies sold

Lol, sure Automata is better, but your post is typical example of toxic players community for WRPG.

And nope it seems be 1M units, explained in the thread.

I know truth is hard to take but looks like you'll have to deal with it, or continue crying


Meanwhile, Im just gonna say it like it is, I don't dabble in fanboyish sugar-coating

The video gaming community in particular seems to draw a lot of excessive negativity and toxic commentary. I haven't seen anywhere near as much negativity in other hobby forums I visit. It's more like political and religious debates in the amount of rancor it causes. Psychologically it probably says a lot about some of the personality types that are drawn to the hobby. I think it would make an interesting University psychology study.