Death Stranding Becomes Biggest PS4 Launch This Year

The most highly anticipated game of 2019, Death Stranding, has reportedly debuted at No. 2 in the UK boxed charts. This goes to show that the PlayStation game, which will also find its way to the PC next year, is living up to its hype.

The success is said to be the second biggest exclusive and the second biggest new IP released this year. This puts Death Stranding just behind another PS4 exclusive, Days Gone, which was released back in April this year. Compared to that, the title from Hideo Kojima Productions is said to have sold at least 36% fewer units at launch.

Death Stranding is the first new game from Kojima since the release of the cult classic Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The latter, which arrived way back in September of 2015, was deemed to be the most successful launch in the franchise to-date.

Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was still able to retain the top sales spot for a third consecutive week. In fact, the game’s sales are now tracking at 26% ahead of last year's Black Ops 4.

The arrival of Death Stranding only suggests that Luigi's Mansion 3 has taken a plummet in the charts. Nintendo's latest Switch title found itself falling from the second spot to the fourth spot, with a 59% drop in sales week-on-week.

There are a number of new boxed releases this week, too, with Need for Speed: Heat from EA embracing the fifth spot. The Need for Speed franchise has been struggling in recent years and the new game managed to sell 41% fewer boxed units at launch when compared to 2017's Need for Speed: Payback. It is worth noting, though, that digital sales are not included in the data.

In related news, Kojima reportedly won the Guinness World Record for social media following in the world of video game development. He now has 2.8 million followers on his English Twitter account and 923,000 on Instagram. The award only says that Kojima has 888,000 Instagram followers, suggesting that there has been a jump in popularity since Guinness verified the number on November 8.