PlayStation’s Best-Selling PC Game Revealed (and It’s on Xbox, Too)

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For several years, PlayStation has been bringing more of its games to PC, starting notably with Horizon Zero Dawn in 2020. Since then, popular titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ghost of Tsushima have also been released on PC. A recent detailed report has now revealed which of these PC releases has been the most successful.

Data from Alinea Analytics shows that Helldivers 2 is currently the top-selling first-party PlayStation game on PC. Since launching in February 2024, the popular multiplayer shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios has reportedly sold approximately 12.7 million copies – more than twice the number sold on PlayStation 5.

While recent reports didn’t include Xbox sales figures, previous estimates from Alinea in October indicated that Helldivers 2 had sold approximately 20 million copies total: 12.6 million on Steam, 5.4 million on PlayStation 5, and 1.4 million on Xbox. Many of those Xbox sales happened quickly, with around a million copies sold in just the first six days. The PS5 version sold about 633,000 copies in its first week, likely because it hadn’t yet benefited from widespread word-of-mouth. Helldivers 2 is also the fastest-selling PlayStation game ever. Considering its earlier success on various platforms, it’s not unexpected that it’s now one of PlayStation’s best-selling games on PC.

Helldivers 2 Has Sold Well on PC

This data focuses solely on Steam sales, as Helldivers 2 isn’t available on platforms like the Epic Games Store (unlike other PlayStation titles). The numbers are estimates from Alinea. According to these estimates, Horizon Zero Dawn sold around 4.5 million copies on Steam, followed by God of War (2018) at 4.2 million. Days Gone is estimated to have sold 3.4 million, and Marvel’s Spider-Man comes in fifth with 2.7 million. Although Spider-Man received better reviews than Days Gone, the PC version of Days Gone was released four years after its initial PlayStation 4 launch, potentially impacting its sales figures. The gap between the PS4 and PC releases of Days Gone was only two years.

These five games have sold approximately 27.5 million copies, while PlayStation games on Steam have collectively sold around 43 million. This has resulted in $1.5 billion in total revenue for PlayStation—$1.2 billion for PlayStation directly and $350 million for Valve, reflecting their share of the profits.

Alinea notes that while PlayStation games are appearing on PC, the initial excitement seems to be fading. Games like God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West haven’t been selling as quickly as their earlier versions. For example, the 2018 God of War sold 2.5 times faster than Ragnarok over a similar period. Horizon Forbidden West also performed slower, selling three times less than Zero Dawn on Steam. This pattern continued with Marvel’s Spider-Man, where the original game sold 1.4 million copies on Steam in a given timeframe – more than double the sales of its sequel.

Alinea believes that despite being profitable, the way people are buying games has shifted. A major challenge for PlayStation is figuring out the best time to release games on PC. They need to balance protecting sales of their PlayStation 5 games with meeting the expectations of PC gamers who want new releases quickly, all while maximizing profits from both platforms and continuing to appeal to players who enjoy high-quality, single-player experiences.

PlayStation has been finding a lot of success with its games on PC. Sales figures from 2022 clearly showed a big increase in popularity when PlayStation games were released for PC. Shuhei Yoshida, a former head of PlayStation Studios, even described porting games to PC as a very profitable venture, allowing PlayStation to fund new game development with rising production costs. Jim Ryan, former President and CEO of PlayStation, agreed, stating that releasing games on PC was a simple and logical business decision.

Ryan explained that bringing popular games to more people is a good opportunity, and it also acknowledges the complex costs of game development. Game creation is becoming more expensive as the quality improves, but they’ve also gotten better at letting people play these games even without a console. Considering these factors, the decision to expand access was a natural one.

Even Ryan’s predecessor, Shawn Layden, has supported the move, noting that focusing on exclusive games has become a weakness with today’s massive development costs.

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2025-11-23 01:40