Although in principle the situation may change later, for the time being the PC version of Returnal has been severely underpowered in terms of the number of simultaneous players.

After Returnal’s recent release on PC, it seems the game isn’t performing as well on the platform as first hoped. Returnal is Sony’s latest PC effort as the company continues to try to expand its audience.

Returnal was first released in April 2021 as a PlayStation 5 exclusive, and after nearly two years of waiting, it finally made its way to PC. While the game wasn’t necessarily a box office hit, it received good reviews and industry awards, so many PC gamers who weren’t familiar with Returnal were excited for its release. The PC port of Returnal was praised for its improved graphics and stable performance, which is often a problem with ports. Sony is to be commended for the effort they put into PC releases, as there hasn’t been a title that has had many of the problems that usually come with lazy PC ports.

Just four days after Returnal’s PC release, the game peaked at just under 7,000 players on Steam, according to SteamDB. This is a disappointing result for the game, as only Sackboy: A Big Adventure from Sony’s recent PC ventures fared worse with a peak score of 610 concurrent players. It should be noted that despite the awards and accolades, Returnal isn’t a huge established IP, so the company’s expectations for the Steam release may have been low. On the PlayStation 5, however, the game met Sony’s expectations, selling 560,000 copies in the first two months of its release.

While performance isn’t great news for Sony, the company can still rely on established franchises on PC for better prospects. Recent Steam releases of God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Horizon Zero Dawn have all performed well on the platform, and the upcoming release of The Last of Us on Steam also promises huge sales for the company. Of course, it’s not just a gloomy outlook, as the company still has a number of huge titles waiting for it on PC, such as God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West and the original Uncharted trilogy.

With low sales, hopefully this won’t affect Sony’s future PC plans. After years of the company confining its games to PlayStation, it was refreshing to see these titles finally make their way to PC, even if they don’t usually come out for quite some time. It’s a fair trade-off – Sony gets timed PlayStation exclusivity, while PC gamers finally get to experience games they wouldn’t otherwise. Current indications are that Sony is looking to expand the “PlayStation PC gaming experience,” so despite the underperformance, gamers have hope for the future.

Returnal is now available on PC and PS5.

Source: GameRant