Rocket League reaches 12 million players, as dev explains sales breakdown
The hit soccer-with-cars game continues to grow following its Xbox One release.
Rocket League now has a total player community of around 12 million people across the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One platforms, a representative for developer Psyonix told GameSpot. This is up from 11 million earlier this month. The game hasn't sold that many copies, however.
12 million is the total number of people who have played Rocket League to date. Since Rocket League offers split-screen play, each individual PlayStation Network and Xbox Gamertag is counted. This means the figure includes people who played Rocket League, but didn't necessarily buy a copy.
In terms of actual sales, that number stands at nearly 4 million, Psyonix marketing executive Jeremy Dunham said earlier this week. This counts the number of copies sold across PC and PS4, as well as Xbox One, where the game just recently launched. This number does not include copies downloaded on PS4 in July 2015 when the soccer-with-cars game was free for all PlayStation Plus members.
Rocket League's total download number has not been shared -- and it's unlikely that it will be. If Psyonix did divulge the cumulative download number, it's possible that it could be deduced how many copies were given away on PS Plus in July, a figure Sony would probably like to keep under wraps.
The total number of Rocket League players will always be significantly higher than actual sales numbers because it combines individual split-screen players and those who downloaded it through PS Plus into one overall figure.
Whatever the case, Rocket League is a huge hit. Developed on a budget of only $2 million and with little marketing push, the game has now generated more than $70 million in revenue. In addition to revenue from game sales (Rocket League sells for $20), Psyonix makes money from Rocket League's $4 expansion packs such as Supersonic Fury, Chaos Run and Revenge of the Battle Cars.
Additionally, Psyonix offers the "Back to the Future"pack for $2, while a "Batman v Superman" car pack is coming in March for the same price. Beyond that, Psyonix is talking with Universal pictures about bringing "Knight Rider"'s KITT car to Rocket League.
Rocket League will expand its footprint further still, as Psyonix will release a physical version of the game at retail in the future.