Exact sales figures for Bloodborne and the Demon’s Souls remake have been revealed, giving some insight into the games’ popularity and how they stack up against other FromSoftware titles.
Insomniac Games, the maker of the Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet and Clank series, has been dealing with a brutal ransomware attack. A massive trove of information on the studio and its employees was leaked across the internet, revealing everything from company secrets to the personal information of some of its employees. While the most eye-catching part of the leak has been gameplay footage and concept art for the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine and aggressive plans to expand its Spider-Man line of games, there are loads of nitty-gritty business details as well.
Included in that are exact sales figures for almost every major first-party title on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 released through the end of Sony’s 2021 fiscal year. This includes tallies for both the ever-popular Bloodborne, and Bluepoint Games’ remake of Demon’s Souls.
How many copies of Bloodborne were sold?
Bloodborne sold at least 7.46 million units, with net sales of $265 million. This likely made Bloodborne the 11th highest-selling PlayStation 4 first-party title as of the time of the report, though the game likely remains in or near this spot as of the end of 2023.
48% of Bloodborne’s sales were through Sony Interactive Entertainment America, while 34% went to the European branch and 18% went to the Japanese branch. It is unclear whether the net sales tally includes revenue generated by Bloodborne: The Old Hunters DLC.
The money generated by Bloodborne is middle-of-the-road relative to its number of units sold. It had proportionally higher net sales than remasters and collections that had a lower price tag. Bloodborne has also been discounted on many occasions since its 2015 release, both on the PlayStation Store and physically. Because of this, games like the PS4 release of Ghost of Tsushima had comparable sales to Bloodborne but significantly higher net sales due that revenue coming in closer to the time of the game’s initial release.
Bloodborne’s revenues show there should be a sequel or remaster
There is no indication that Bloodborne 2, Bloodborne remaster, or Bloodborne enhanced port is being made. Fans have long grumbled over this, and the sales figures for the game largely show that these frustrations are valid.
Numerous titles that sold fewer units than Bloodborne and generated less revenue have received some sort of follow-up. Head-to-head, Bloodborne generated significantly higher revenue than multiple first-party games that have gone on to receive sequels or follow-ups. Head-to-head, Bloodborne’s $265 million in net sales more than doubles the $123 million of 2016’s Ratchet and Clank remake or 2014’s LittleBigPlanet 3 and its $112 million.
Despite this, LittleBigPlanet was followed by the spin-off title Sackboy: A Big Adventure. Ratchet and Clank received a blockbuster sequel in Rift Apart, and has another game in development.
Meanwhile, Bloodborne hasn’t even received a performance patch for modern platforms. The only word on new Bloodborne content has been a notable film industry leaker saying that a Bloodborne film is in the works. There hasn’t been any news or info related to it since then, however.
Sony has seemingly dropped some first-party releases that underperformed relative to Bloodborne, including inFamous, Detroit Become Human, and Until Dawn. It hasn’t been even-handed in this however. Death Stranding’s PS4 and PS5 releases sold about 4.4 million units combined and generated $191 million in net sales. It’s unlikely to match Bloodborne in terms of net sales or units sold, but Death Stranding 2 is currently in development.
Demon’s Souls remake sales figures revealed
The Demon’s Souls remake sold 1.86 million units, according to the financial report. The game had net sales of $113 million. It was the fourth-highest-selling first-party title of its fiscal year, trailing Spider-Man: Miles Morales, The Last of Us 2, and Ghost of Tsushima by a significant margin.
As with Bloodborne, it was in the middle of the pack when it units sold relative to net revenue. It also had a similar breakdown of popularity by region, with 50% of the net sales going to Sony Interactive Entertainment America, 36% going to Europe, and 14% going to Japan. These figures skew slightly toward Western markets relative to Bloodborne.
Demon’s Souls also launched at an awkward time for all parties. The game launched in November 2020 as the PlayStation 5’s first true exclusive, not being released on PlayStation 4 or PC. This was a time when there was a significant shortage of PlayStation 5 consoles, something that tamped the game’s buzz despite enjoying strong critical praise.
