No doubt about it – PS4 had some of the best exclusives in the industry. From God of War to The Last of Us, most of the best games of the generation could only be experienced on Sony's console. And, not surprisingly, most of those exclusives pulled in a ridiculous amount of cash.
TJ Consunji, a marketing professional with over 17 years of experience working with PlayStation, recently discussed a few of the projects he's worked on with the company and how they've outperformed expectations. He first mentions God of War, a game that "set records for the highest year-one and digital sales" with over 10 million units sold and grossing over $500 million. That figure narrowly beats out Horizon Zero Dawn, which delivered 8 million units globally – although it still managed to win "multiple Best New IP Awards" and gross over $400 million.
Drew Thaler, now the co-founder of Mesh Communities but previously a programmer at Naughty Dog, mentioned that all games he worked on at the studio between 2013 and 2018 grossed "around $1 billion per release." That includes The Last of Us – a game most critics would agree was a masterpiece on PS3, later remastered for PS4.
Those are all impressive figures, but Spider-Man on PS4 takes top honors for the fastest-selling first-party video game in Sony history, making $198 million within three days of release. It narrowly edged out God of War for the spot, as Kratos and gang sold 3.1 million copies while Peter Parker sold 3.3 million.
Sony exclusives continue to overperform, and it'll be interesting to see how titles fare on PS5. A few solid exclusives are already available on the console – including Demon's Souls and Spider-Man: Miles Morales – but the coming year has some even bigger titles in the works. Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart, Gran Turismo 7, and Returnal are all expected to drop in 2021, and it'll be interesting to see what sort of figures they put up on the new platform. As long as Sony can keep PS5 in stock, we expect to see some big figures throughout next year.