Destiny is such a massive success that it didn’t even need to hit store shelves to boost the industry.
Publisher Activision’s online sci-fi shooter, where players team up to take on missions fighting aliens, reached revenues of $500 million on day one, but it was already generating cash well before that. The title debuted for preorder on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in late August, and that helped digital gaming reach $819.6 million last month, according to industry intelligence firm SuperData Research. This reveals the importance of presale, where gamers can purchase and download a product before it’s out so they can start playing right when it unlocks on launch day. It is also evidence that players are continuing to warm up to buying non-physical copies of games, which have lower margins for publishers and can’t enter the secondary market.
“With Activision’s Destiny available for pre-download in late-August, digital console experienced strong growth this month,” SuperData chief executive and lead research Joost van Dreunen said. “[This showed] an increase for both download sales and microtransaction revenue.”
Digital played a big part in getting Destiny to $500 million on its first day, and that wasn’t just due to people downloading the game on Xbox One and PS4. People are also already plunking down their money to buy more Destiny in the future. Retailers like GameStop also put a lot of marketing into upselling customers on add-on content and the premium-priced Guardian Edition that guarantees access to future expansions.
Destiny’s profits are especially impressive because it is a new franchise that cannot trade on the popularity of an established brand. “By comparison, Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts generated roughly the same amount in first-day sales last year,” said van Dreunen. “[But it was building] on the loyalty of its preexisting fanbase.”
This early success bodes well for the game’s future.
“Destiny is well-positioned to become Activision’s third billion-dollar franchise,” said van Dreunen. “Totaling an estimated five million units in sales across both digital and physical channels on its first day, its lifetime install base is conservatively [expected to sell] 16 million units. [It has] already outperformed Ubisoft’s hit Watch Dogs, which sold four million copies in its first week.”
Earlier this year, a Cowen & Company analyst predicted Destiny would outsell every other 2014 release. With its strong debut, both at retail and through digital channels, it looks like it may easily do that.