Last week’s top Steam games, Summer Game Fest's follower impact, and some big launches
Plus, a look at Dune: Awakening’s launch and pre-release Steam metrics, the performance of Lies of P and its shadow-dropped DLC, and our take on the Switch 2’s launch and future.
What a time to cover games!
Since the last newsletter, we got a new Nintendo console, game announcements galore from Summer Games Fest, PlayStation, and Xbox, and a bunch of new releases.
Let’s get straight into it.
The upcoming Summer Game Fest games that mobilized Steam users
Geoff Keighley and co did well with this year’s Summer Game Fest line-up, featuring indies, big third parties, and some genuine surprises.
But how are things looking on Steam? Here’s the top follower gainers on Steam following SGF:
Let’s dive into the top 5 SGF games by new Steam followers between June 6 and 8:
Resident Evil Requiem (RE9) took the top spot, with over 15K followers. Players are eager to return to Racoon City, following the incredible 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4 (3.7 million copies sold on Steam and 5.8 million on PlayStation). RE9 now has 32k followers and over 700K wishlists on Steam. The Alinea crew CAN’T WAIT to play it at Gamescom.
ILL, another survival game, took #2 with 11K new followers. The disgustingly cool narrative-based debut from Team Clout clearly captivated gamers, leveraging the body-horror genre that’s very hot in media right now. ILL now has 20K followers and almost as many wishlists as RE9 (645K vs. RE9’s 700K). But they’re appealing to different audiences, as just 16% of RE9 Steam wishlisters also wishlisted ILL.
Chronicles: Medieval was #3. Set in 1313 AD Europe, this medieval strategy RPG climbed charged in with 9K new followers between June 6 and 8. It’s since amassed 16K followers and 195K wishlists. It’s one to watch for sure.
Two Mundfish titles in the Atomic Heart universe round off the top 5, open-world RPG Atomic Heart II (almost 9K followers) and The CUBE (almost 8K), an MMO shooter.
And of course, no event is complete these days without a shadow drop, and SGF delivered with the surprise launch of Lies of P DLC Overture.
It’s trending well so far, which is no surprise – as Lies of P is a souls-like that often reaches the same highs as the FromSoftware games that inspired it:
The Overture DLC has already sold 141K copies on Steam (100K over the weekend), an attach rate of over 12%.
Base(d) Lies of P has now sold over 1.1 million copies on Steam (also 1.1 million on PlayStation), with a recent spike on both platforms due to a well-timed discount to $30 (its lowest yet).
Lies of P has reached about 6 million players on Xbox, thanks to its day-one availability on Game Pass.
Get a deeper analysis of Lies of P and its DLC (🎶) right here.
Week 23’s top Steam games by copies sold and revenues
Last week, Deltarune, Dune: Awakening (keep reading for a deep dive on this one), and Elden Ring Nightreign dominated our Steam charts, which featured indies, AA, AAA, and ports all smashing it.
This is what we like to see here at Alinea:
Zooming in on the revenues, we see that:
Valve’s own Counter-Strike 2 generated $27.3 million last week, comfortably making it week 23’s #1. While Counter-Strike doesn’t dominate mainstream conversation anymore, its in-game economy is still ticking along nicely and has now generated several BILLIONS of dollars for Valve.
Elden Ring Nightreign, which did well in May, continued to perform, netting another $12.6 million – via another 393K copies – in week 23. While weekly copies sold are slowing, this lean, asset-reuse PVE experiment from FromSoftware has paid off. Last week, Nightreign passed lifetime copies sold of 2 million on Steam alone (and over a million on PlayStation).
Dune: Awakening – which wasn’t even fully released – just edged Deltarune to take the #3 spot with revenues of $11.0 million via its 274k copies sold between June 2 and June 8. Keep reading to the next section for a juicy deep dive on Dune.
Deltarune (#4), a pseudo-sequel to indie-RPG darling Undertale, released its long-awaited third and fourth chapters on June 4. In week 23, Deltarune generated revenues of $11.0 million on Steam via 549K copies sold. It's now at 600K+ copies overall (half of them in the US) and 63% of the audience also played Undertale on Steam.
Stellar Blade rounded off the revenue top 5. The Korean hack-and-slash finally came to Steam on June 11, after over a year of PS5 exclusivity (it's PS second party). In week 23, BEFORE LAUNCH, it generated $6 million in revenues on Steam. By its launch day (June 11), Stellar Blade sold a total of 544K lifetime copies (revenues of $26.2 million).
Now at 116K followers and 1.6 million wishlisters, Stellar Blade will shift plenty more copies on Steam. Keep your eyes peeled for next week’s rankings – that’s all we’ll say there. 👀
Over half of Stellar Blade players are in China – again pointing to the importance of full market coverage. Want to see that action via our platform? Let us know and we’ll show you!
One to watch: Dune: Awakening
The jury’s still out, but MMO survival game Dune: Awakening – which launched on June 10 after a five-day early access period – is showing early signs of success.
As you can see, Dune hit a peak of 140K concurrent players on launch day. To put this in perspective for the genre, RuneScape Dragonwilds had a peak of 33K on its launch day in April, while Palworld peaked at 370K on its launch day last year.
Some other key data:
Dune: Awakening has now sold over 700K copies on Steam already, and is on track to comfortably pass a million by the weekend. Reply to this email if you want an update on its performance 👀.
It has a user score of 88% on Steam, so its rewarding mix of fun-friction MMO survival mechanics and authentic rendition of the Dune IP – and Arrakis’ unforgiving environment – is mostly landing.
The US is Dune’s largest market, accounting for 43% of players, but European markets account for around 20%.
So it’s unsurprising to see Dune’s CCUs peaking at around 22:00 CET on launch day, when the majority of the game’s audience was awake.
It looks like a lot of Americans logged in during work/school time to survive the unforgiving world of Arrakis. Paul Muad'Dib would be proud!
Were we surprised by Dune’s early success? Not particularly! We’ve been following its pre-launch metrics for a while, and it was tracking well.
Communities follow a game when they’re eager for updates on a title in their community activity feed. Wishlists show future purchase intent, but followers represent community. Here’s Dune: Awakening’s follower count from April to June 11:
The above image shows that Dune: Awakening hit just shy of 200K before launch. Across all titles on Steam, just 10 titles have reached these heights pre-launch. To put this in perspective, Helldivers 2 had a third of Dune’s followers at this point in its product lifecycle (but shot to the moon right after).
Dune: Awakening has been highly anticipated since Funcom first announced it three years ago, but it took things to new heights with some smart pre-launch marketing events:
Dune’s pre-launch campaign kicked off in earnest with April 25th’s Story Trailer, which currently has 2.3 million views on YouTube, set the tone of the narrative, and promoted the game’s beta weekend. The trailer helped Dune add another 10k followers in about a week.
The beta weekend (May 9-12), available to those who preordered Dune, saw the biggest spike in followers (14K in three days, with 6K on the day the beta ended)
Dune attracted another 10K followers in the 18 days post-beta, just over 500 a day on average
Owing to the game’s MMO trappings, many players were curious about what to expect from the endgame. A live stream outlining the endgame dropped on May 30, providing a small but noticeable boost in followers ahead of the launch
The key takeaway here is that when it comes to survival games, cinematic reveals can build the foundation, but playable experiences and endgame transparency convert interest into followers and – eventually – players.
Funcom’s community-building across socials and streaming channels was also well executed. The official Dune: Awakening Discord channel already has 140K members.
While the long-term performance of Dune: Awakening is uncertain, it’s off to a promising start. And like Dune’s Bene Gesserit, we’ll be keeping a keen eye on this one.
Want to track Dune’s progress for yourself? Reach out for a free trial!
Switch 2 launches to huge success, but can it stick (drift) the landing?
Nintendo announced that the Switch 2 sold 3.5 million units – to consumers, not stores – in just four days. It's Nintendo’s fastest-selling console ever, including the OG Switch.
This is unsurprising, as:
Nintendo diehards (🙋) have been begging for a more powerful Switch for YEARS. Nintendo finally delivered, so we early adopters showed up in full force.
The OG was heavily supply-constrained and was held back at launch (although the FOMO almost certainly added to demand).
This time, Nintendo knew what to expect, so it got all its logistical and inventory ducks in a row for the Switch 2.
But the real question is whether Nintendo can continue this momentum once it reaches all the diehards. Convincing some of the more casual gamers to upgrade won't be easy. But Nintendo has some tricks up its sleeve. It'll likely try to time the launch of the next 3D Mario (almost certainly Switch 2 exclusive) with the next Mario movie.
One thing many people are overlooking is Pokémon. Everyone is talking about Mario Kart and the Super Mario IP, but the Pokémon fandom is on track to move the needle even more for the console.
Pokémon Legends ZA will run best on Switch 2, and the inevitable Switch 2 mainline Pokémon game in 2026 (celebrating the IP’s 30th anniversary) will also sell gangbusters. If Pokémon 2026 is Switch 2 exclusive, which it likely will be, it’d be a HUGE boon for the Switch 2.
Then there's also the Animal Crossing and Zelda of it all. Together, these two franchises alone account for over 100 million copies sold on the original Switch. That's revenues of over $5 BILLION.
Yet, the comp with the OG Switch is challenging. The original was many consumers' gateway to games when we were all stuck at home during the pandemic. Cosy gamers will mobilise in full force when the next Animal Crossing hits, but it likely won't be a success on the level of Animal Crossing New Horizons (48M+ copies sold!)
The real litmus test for the Switch 2's long-term success will be calendar Q4 this year. On the road to the holiday season, Nintendo needs a strong content cadence and to fine-tune its marketing for casual audiences. Nintendo's dev teams have been quiet, so I'm expecting a Nintendo Direct soon to begin drumming hype.
A remake of Game Boy game Link's Awakening has sold 7+ million on the Switch. That's more than most AAA developers could dream of. Nintendo has plenty more content from the GameCube, Wii, and (3)DS era to mine.
There's a little uncertainty still, but we’re optimistic about the Switch 2's long-term potential. If Nintendo nails the holiday season this year, it'll probably nail the whole generation. Speaking of the Switch 2…
What the Alinea team is playing right now
Marcus: Mario Kart World on Switch 2 and Smash Ultimate (‘’Even though I have the Switch 2 now, I can’t help but get back into action on Smash’’)
Rhys: Mario Kart World and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 (‘’I’ve been grinding and wall-riding in both Mario Kart and the THPS 3+4 demo. Anybody who knows me knows THPS is very important to me. Roll on (in?), summer!’’)
Viktor: ‘’Between house hunting and entertaining my two kids, the only game I’m playing right now is life. As a fellow former skater, Rhys has piqued my interest in THPS 3+4 though!’’
The last word
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