Sucker Punch Productions is starting 2022 in the best way possible. Officially announced during Sony’s CES 2022 conference, Ghost of Tsushima has sold 8 million copies worldwide in the 18 months following its initial release on July 17, 2020. This marks an increase in 1.5 million copies sold since the last sales update in March 2021, likely due in part to the release of the Director’s Cut in August 2021. Sucker Punch took to Twitter yesterday to thank players, and the gif is amazing.
At the time of its release in July 2020, Ghost of Tsushima became PlayStation’s fastest-selling original IP, selling more than 2.4 million copies within the first three days. This beat the record previously held by Horizon Zero Dawn, which took two weeks to sell 2.6 million units. Currently, Tsushima lags behind established franchises like God of War and Spider-Man, which each sold over three million copies in three days–but as a new IP, this is still an impressive feat.
In a past interview, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan mentioned the riskiness of new IP launches. “The thing with those blockbuster games is that they need a box office release. They cost more than $100m dollars to make these days and in order to be able to do that and bring new IP to the market you’ve got to have a box office release,” he said.
Ghost of Tsushima is available to play on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The Director’s Cut was released in August 2021. It includes an expansion in which Jin visits Iki Island, along with PlayStation 5 exclusive features like haptic feedback, full Japanese lip-sync, adaptive trigger support, 3D audio support, 4K resolution, and faster loading times. In March 2021, Sony Pictures and PlayStation productions announced that a film adaptation was in the works, directed by Chad Stahelski of John Wick fame. Stahelski has mentioned in interviews that he wants to “do it right,” and while the movie is still in early production, he has assured fans of the game that they’ll be “very happy with what we’re working on.” Only time will tell.
