Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart peaks at less than 9k concurrent players on Steam, third worst PC launch for PlayStation game

[John Elden Ring]

Source​

---

Launched on July 26, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart only peaked at 8,757 concurrent players (CCU) on Steam (via SteamDB).

It currently holds a “Very Positive” rating based on 670 user reviews, with 84% of them being positive.

This makes Rift Apart the third worst launch on PC for a PlayStation game, only above Returnal (6,691 CCU) and Sackboy: A Big Adventure (610 CCU). There is also a PC version of Helldivers, with 6,744 peak CCU, but its developer Arrowhead is not SIE’s first-party studio.

Here are the top 5 tiles from PlayStation Studios by peak CCU on Steam:

• God of War — 73,529 CCU, 96% rating (based on 75k reviews);
• Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered — 66,436 CCU, 96% rating (based on 51k reviews);
• Horizon Zero Dawn — 56,557 CCU, 87% rating (based on 74k reviews);
• The Last of Us Part I — 36,496 CCU, 59% rating (based on 20k reviews);
• Days Gone — 27,450 CCU, 92% rating (based on 43k reviews).

---

What about Rift Apart’s technical state and the SSD buzz?​

One of the key features of Rift Apart is the ability to hop between different dimensions, which was marketed as something only possible thanks to PS5’s fast SSD, i.e. technically impossible on PS4. Although the PC version can run on an HDD, the experience is definitely not the same (or, frankly said, really bad).

As clearly seen in Digital Foundry’s test, there is not much difference between using 3.5GB/s and 7.1GB/s NVMe drives, but those dimension-hopping sequences get extremely painful with slower SATA SSDs or HDDs.

Rift Apart also became the first PC game to incorporate GPU decompression through the DirectStorage 1.2 API to speed up load times and asset streaming. As Nixxes told Digital Foundry, larger assets such as textures are decompressed using the GPU, while smaller assets like models are decompressed on the CPU.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Good if more ports fail all the better they will stop wasting financial and developing resources for an audience who is not interested in buying their games. Nothing less to expect of cheap Master Racer who want everything for low but can afford a $4k PC. This just proves the madness Sony is trying to cater.

 

[ethomaz]

Expected.

Most Sony games on PC failed… last FY was a disaster way below Sony projections.

Bungie was the only one that saved the PC business for Sony and even so it ended below Sony PC projections but at least it was not too far way (without Bungie the situation should be epic legal or failure).

 

[Gods&Monsters]

More laughingstock and bad press for these shoddy ports.

Playstation is now synonymous with shovelware. Good job with these flops!

 

[Systemshock2023]

Keep em coming Sony!!! Going through those big threads after each PC port is announced is half of the fun! Certainly more fun than some of the trash you been releasing lately on PC. Bring the ones the PC gaming audience actually wants and you'll get the sales, specially THAT game.

 

[Papacheeks]

Steam is the main pc platform. With tons of competition.

Ratchet is a single player third person play former. It’s not going to do gangbusters.

It didn’t sell gang busters on Ps5.

People need to calm down. Niche title does niche numbers.

Meanwhile Spider-Man, god of war have done well. Ghost will be as big as god of war and to an extent horizon.

I’ll come back to this thread in 6 months to see how knee jerk it is. If you think Sony projecting RATCHET to do god of war numbers than you truly are a moron.

 

[Gediminas]

Source​

---

Launched on July 26, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart only peaked at 8,757 concurrent players (CCU) on Steam (via SteamDB).

It currently holds a “Very Positive” rating based on 670 user reviews, with 84% of them being positive.

This makes Rift Apart the third worst launch on PC for a PlayStation game, only above Returnal (6,691 CCU) and Sackboy: A Big Adventure (610 CCU). There is also a PC version of Helldivers, with 6,744 peak CCU, but its developer Arrowhead is not SIE’s first-party studio.

Here are the top 5 tiles from PlayStation Studios by peak CCU on Steam:

• God of War — 73,529 CCU, 96% rating (based on 75k reviews);
• Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered — 66,436 CCU, 96% rating (based on 51k reviews);
• Horizon Zero Dawn — 56,557 CCU, 87% rating (based on 74k reviews);
• The Last of Us Part I — 36,496 CCU, 59% rating (based on 20k reviews);
• Days Gone — 27,450 CCU, 92% rating (based on 43k reviews).

---

What about Rift Apart’s technical state and the SSD buzz?​

One of the key features of Rift Apart is the ability to hop between different dimensions, which was marketed as something only possible thanks to PS5’s fast SSD, i.e. technically impossible on PS4. Although the PC version can run on an HDD, the experience is definitely not the same (or, frankly said, really bad).

As clearly seen in Digital Foundry’s test, there is not much difference between using 3.5GB/s and 7.1GB/s NVMe drives, but those dimension-hopping sequences get extremely painful with slower SATA SSDs or HDDs.

Rift Apart also became the first PC game to incorporate GPU decompression through the DirectStorage 1.2 API to speed up load times and asset streaming. As Nixxes told Digital Foundry, larger assets such as textures are decompressed using the GPU, while smaller assets like models are decompressed on the CPU.

You forgot Sackboy with amazing 610 All-Time Peak

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Keep em coming Sony!!! Going through those big threads after each PC port is announced is half of the fun! Certainly more fun than some of the trash you been releasing lately on PC. Bring the ones the PC gaming audience actually wants and you'll get the sales, specially THAT game.

Well this would suit your harmful wishing to come true. Always when there a bad news you’re coming out and commenting. More than one time we have seen your gloating. We all know you’re an Xbox fanboy disguised as PC gamer lol. You ain’t fooling anyone here.

 

[Systemshock2023]

Well this would suit your harmful wishing to come true. Always when there a bad news you’re coming out and commenting. More than one time we have seen your gloating. We all know you’re an Xbox fanboy disguised as PC gamer lol. You ain’t fooling anyone here.

Yep everyone is an Xbox fanboy/shill/astroturfer... Precisely the only brand of consoles I never owned...

NES
SNES
PS1
PS2
WII
Alongside several gaming PCs through the years from 486 onwards. My main platform.

I of course love seeing more and more games being released on PC without having to buy additional console hardware that would gather dust. And the SAME goes for Xbox.

Sony has to up their game with their PC ports if they are interested in more sales. Better port quality, game selection and marketing. What's next? Medievil remake? Drawn to death? No wonder those games end up flopping...

 

[Swift_Star]

This is so weird, tbh. You keep seeing these pc fellas saying Sony should port their games to pc, that it’s money left on the table, they cry and outrage on the internet and then don’t buy the games when released… I guess forums aren’t really representative of the userbase.
I’d like to see the player count for square enix games on pc too.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I need @Yurinka to show up and tell me how much of a success this actually is .

Mad respect for 'ya bud, but it's clear this PC initiative is not going the way Sony projected. They misread the market there. But, at least this means they can relegate PC to just proven games/IP (Marathon should do very well there) and prioritize the console for everything else, which is what should've been the strategy from Day 1.

Sony has to up their game with their PC ports if they are interested in more sales. Better port quality,

Nixxes handled this port, and they're among the best. It's not their fault DirectStorage and PC I/O in general isn't up to the task.

game selection

Rift Apart's one of the best games released in the past few years, even if just going by Metacritic scores.

and marketing.

Vampire Survivors didn't need much any marketing, IJS.

What's next? Medievil remake? Drawn to death? No wonder if that ends up flopping...

Games similar to these are on PC and seem to do pretty well. So either the people begging for the ports are just trolls, or they have tastes in games that just don't align with a lot of Sony's output.

And Sony aren't going to damage the selling power of their big games on PlayStation consoles by doing Day 1 ports to PC, or ports anywhere too close after release/for a few years. At least, if they were smart. We'll see if that holds up.

 

[Muddasar]

Sony should just release GaaS shit on PC.

The quicker they realise that the better.

Honestly I only see 2 games selling well on PC.

Demons Souls and Bloodborne.

 

[Swift_Star]

I need @Yurinka to show up and tell me how much of a success this actually is .

Mad respect for 'ya bud, but it's clear this PC initiative is not going the way Sony projected. They misread the market there. But, at least this means they can relegate PC to just proven games/IP (Marathon should do very well there) and prioritize the console for everything else, which is what should've been the strategy from Day 1.



Nixxes handled this port, and they're among the best. It's not their fault DirectStorage and PC I/O in general isn't up to the task.



Rift Apart's one of the best games released in the past few years, even if just going by Metacritic scores.



Vampire Survivors didn't need much any marketing, IJS.



Games similar to these are on PC and seem to do pretty well. So either the people begging for the ports are just trolls, or they have tastes in games that just don't align with a lot of Sony's output.

And Sony aren't going to damage the selling power of their big games on PlayStation consoles by doing Day 1 ports to PC, or ports anywhere too close after release/for a few years. At least, if they were smart. We'll see if that holds up.

I think they’re an annoying vocal minority. I think one of the problems gaming has right now is listening to places like resetera. They are almost always wrong about anything but some devs and journalists there believe that forum takes are gospel. And they never are.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I think they’re an annoying vocal minority. I think one of the problems gaming has right now is listening to places like resetera. They are almost always wrong about anything but some devs and journalists there believe that forum takes are gospel. And they never are.

Well, that's partly Sony's fault for not having a pulse on grassroots enthusiasts community communication. Quite a few people there asking for these PC ports simply don't want a strong PlayStation console-wise so that Microsoft has less competition and less pressure on them to perform up to a certain standard.

They want Microsoft's way to be the industry's way, but don't acknowledge that Microsoft can get away with certain bad (financially) strategies in gaming precisely because of their unique position as a near $3 trillion mega-corporation.

A lot of their gaming initiatives are not feasible or sustainable for significantly smaller companies, and they know those other companies would bleed out if they tried it. Which is why they want to see them do it.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Pathetic. Congratulations.

I bet the pirates enjoyed it.

PC hasn't been about AAA single player games in a long time. Players will either pirate, ignore or just buy it on deep sales for peanuts.

 

[anonpuffs]

People should stop worrying about launch sales on PC.

On PC, in order to have massive launch sales, you need to be an established franchise with a huge following. Sony games are literally not that. To judge success on PC you need to wait until the 2nd or 3rd installment, and look at the long tail sales.

That said, certain games and genres aren't going to do well. Action platformers aren't a big draw on pc.

 

[KnittedKnight]

Valve generates about 10 billion revenue from Steam, give or take 15%. The PC pie is not that big for premium games.

More lost opportunity cost (and weaker platform differentiation). Par for the course.

 

[Muddasar]

People should stop worrying about launch sales on PC.

On PC, in order to have massive launch sales, you need to be an established franchise with a huge following. Sony games are literally not that. To judge success on PC you need to wait until the 2nd or 3rd installment, and look at the long tail sales.

That said, certain games and genres aren't going to do well. Action platformers aren't a big draw on pc.

Just release Demons Souls + Bloodborne and be done with it.

PC should be GaaS only for Sony.

 

[Entropi]

Sooner or later Sony will be forced to give up. PC gamers don’t care about this type of game, or paying full price for a product.

 

[JAHGamer]

20+ year legacy down the toilet for pennies 8k peak players was definitely worth devaluing your console.

Good if more ports fail all the better they will stop wasting financial and developing resources for an audience who is not interested in buying their games.

Jim and Hermen are too dumb to stop now. Porting their biggest and best games and making only 100m ~ revenue should’ve been a clear sign to stop. PC support won’t end until there’s new management that actually knows how to run a company.