No Man’s Sky fans were able to sink their teeth into the Atlas Rises update Friday, and it’s been nothing but good news for Hello Games ever since. According to the current list of Global Top Sellers on Steam, the space exploration title is the second-highest grossing PC game right now.
The top name on that list is the massively popular PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but, as many redditors have pointed out, there were brief moments where No Man’s Sky’s income actually surpassed the virally popular multiplayer hit.
This feat is especially impressive since No Man’s Sky is currently on sale for $23.99 at a 60 percent discount. The promotion likely helps pad the numbers pretty well, but $23.99 is still less than Battlegrounds’’ standard price of $29.99. In other words, in order to surpass it like it did, No Man’s Sky must’ve been selling at a faster rate. That’s a stunning achievement, especially considering PUBG was popular enough to sell over 5 million copies in just four months.
We won’t know the exact metrics of the sales increase until sites like SteamSpy have enough time to gather the complete data, but it’s no secret that No Man’s Sky’s Atlas Rises update has sparked interest in this incredibly controversial game.
Particularly for the PC gaming crowd, the update’s graphics and performance enhancements might’ve been enough to attract prospective players and bring old players back to its diverse universe. The full patch notes feature improved effects, reduced artifacts and high-level textures across many biomes. For a game that’s suffered so much on the PC platform in particular, those are definitely the kind of enhancements its audience want to see.
Of course, there’s a lot more to say about the massive-scale changes to the game as well. In addition to 30 hours of brand new story content, explorers are finally getting some of the concepts that were promised for the game since it launched last year. Systems have been put in place to enable realistic intergalactic trade, fast travel and, most critically, multiplayer.
Whether you loved watching the No Man’s Sky drama of last summer or you felt burned by it, there’s no denying that Hello Games has continued to craft an intriguing story for this very polarizing game. Despite being confronted by death threats and lawsuits last August, the Hello Games team has remained focused enough to bring lots of content to this formally empty game. The Atlas Rises update is definitely the biggest patch of the bunch, but vehicles and base building features have been added in the past as well. Given its rocky start, Atlas Rises aims to be a rebirth of No Man’s Sky. In that regard, a sense of morbid curiosity may be driving sales just as heavily.
What remains to be seen is just how deep this Atlas Rises content actually is. Does it truly allow for 30 hours of gameplay? Is the No Man’s Sky universe worth that time investment to begin with? Weeks after the game’s release, its PC concurrents dropped below 1,000. Will we see a similar plummet this time? We’re not sure, but color us intrigued. If done right, No Man’s Sky just might be one of the biggest comebacks in gaming history.
No Man’s Sky is available now on PS4 and PC.
What are your thoughts about the No Man’s Sky Atlas Rises update? Will this Steam sales spike last? Tell us in the comments section!
- A massive universe to explore
- Cool alien races
- A brilliant showcase of procedural technology
- Not much to do beyond resource collection
- Alien interactions are fairly meaningless
- Not as unique as originally advertised.
