PlayStation 5 exclusive Saros had a “lukewarm start” and may not make its development costs back, according to a video game analytics firm.
Norwegian firm Alinea Analytics estimates that in the two weeks since its release, Saros has passed 300,000 copies sold and earned more than $22 million in revenue for Sony.
The company suggests that, given that the game’s reported development budget was around $76 million, it may “struggle to break even” as a result.
According to the firm, however, the game’s data doesn’t point to an entirely negative situation. Of the players who have bought the game, 40% have played it for more than 15 hours, and 30% have played for more than 20 hours.
“That is pretty impressive engagement for a roguelike of this difficulty profile, only two weeks into release,” Alinea’s head of market analysis Rhys Elliott stated, adding that Housemarque‘s decision to make the game more accessible than Returnal has led to more than 20% of players completing the game so far (based on trophy data), double what Returnal had at this point.
“This is the silver lining in the data,” Elliott suggested. “Saros obviously isn’t pulling in casual PlayStation owners at the scale Sony and Housemarque might have hoped, but the audience that did show up is playing the hell out of it.
“That’s the audience that recommends games to friends, drives organic word-of-mouth, and converts at higher rates when the game eventually goes on sale or hits PS Plus.”
Alinea’s data suggests that Saros is selling “a little slower” than Returnal did in the same period, despite the PS5 user base now being around 93 million versus 8 million.
“On first look, that seems rough,” Elliott said, “but there’s a bit more to it. When Returnal hit in April 2021, less than five months after the PS5 launch. Those early PS5 adopters (the ones who inherently buy a lot of new games at full price) were dying for something to play.
“Returnal was the first big first-party PlayStation release since launch, and it made amazing use of the unique DualSense haptics and spatial audio. Many core PS5 players flocked to it almost by default.
“It’s a different story for Saros. It’s launched not too long after Crimson Desert, Resident Evil Requiem, Hades 2 on PS5, Pragmata, and a whole bunch of rad 2026 games. This is a more niche PlayStation Studios game. It was never going to do numbers like God of War or Ghost of Yotei.”
He added: “It really is a shame, as Saros is a fantastic game and frankly deserves better numbers than this. But 3D bullet-hell-type games, especially those with a $70+ price tag, are a tough sell in today’s market, particularly without a big IP behind it, or a studio that’s recognised outside of the PlayStation hardcore.
“But there’s plenty to love about Saros. I’m loving it, and so are many others. It’s also already sold more copies than Marathon on PS5, so there’s that.”
VGC’s Saros review gave the game 5 stars, calling it “one of PS5’s most memorable first-party games”.
“Saros is a bold, confident realisation of 30 years of Housemarque,” we wrote. “It builds on the mystery and exceptional gameplay of Returnal with an excellent lead performance, and changes to the formula mean even more players will come to realise that Housemarque is PlayStation’s secret weapon.”
