In a social media landscape increasingly obsessed with the phrase “dead game,” what exactly constitutes a success? This old debate resurfaced after Rhys Elliot of Alinea Analytics disclosed the first-week sales figures for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls in his latest newsletter. As of Aug. 12, the Marvel fighting game had sold 485,000 copies. 74% of these sales came on PlayStation 5 and 26% on Steam. The game has brought in $33 million in revenue, according to the analyst.
Elliot speculates that major PC issues likely held back sales, and that it could have moved 1 million copies in its first week if the Steam launch hadn’t been so rocky. The PC port has performance problems, bugs, intrusive DRM, and no Linux support. Only 48% of PC users have given Marvel Tokon a positive review on Steam, a slight improvement over its launch score of 37%, but still quite poor.
Many who are used to larger sales numbers have said that Marvel Tokon‘s sub-500,000 sales figures are disappointing and point to a weak start. “THIS DOESN’T LOOK GOOD (alarm emoji),” one X user posted in response to the news. “Dreadful numbers. Looks like another failed live-service game for PlayStation. Will they ever learn?” another commented.
Still, the game’s release could have looked much better. Beyond the performance issues stifling PC figures, Marvel Tokon isn’t available for purchase in dozens of countries, presumably because of its PlayStation Network linking requirements. This is particularly disappointing, given the genre’s reputation for international competition.
At the same time, though, fighting games require far fewer active players than many other multiplayer genres due to revolving around one-versus-one matches. By comparison, Tokon’s sales figures show the game could stick around for quite a while if it’s supported well and Arc System Works fixes many of the performance issues on PC. Many players who were initially cold about Tokon’s core gameplay have largely come around because of its surprising depth and unique spin on tag-fighting games. The game has the second-highest number of registrants at this weekend’s CEO tournament, behind only Street Fighter 6.
