Breakout hit Wardogs is outpacing Arc Raiders and Helldivers 2 on Steam in terms of copies sold at launch, new data shows.
Bulkhead’s tactical first-person shooter released in early access form on Steam on September 10 and hit a peak of 428,666 concurrent players soon after, becoming one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform. It sold 1 million copies on day one and 1.25 million by day two. Bulkhead announced 2 million sales after just five days.
According to Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics, Wardogs is now up to 2.2 million copies sold on Steam, which means it’s outpacing Arc Raiders (1.7 million) and Helldivers 2 (1 million) when launch aligned on Valve’s platform.
Not only that, with approximately $70 million in revenue generated so far, Wardogs has already made more money on Steam alone than Bungie’s Marathon has managed across PC and console so far, Elliott’s data suggests. “It’s another reminder that, when it comes to live-service games, community trumps budget and pedigree,” he said.
The question now is can Wardogs maintain its momentum with both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and GTA 6 around the corner. Both Arc Raiders and Helldivers 2 enjoyed huge interest months after release, and went on to sell many millions of copies. Wardogs still has a long way to go before matching both games longer term, but it’s worth remembering Wardogs is in early access, where it will remain for 1-2 years. A console version planned for 2028. “We are adamant that we do not want to be in Early Access for a long time,” its Steam page reads. Overnight, Bulkhead boss Joe Brammer said Season 2 will bring “lots of new content and changes” now Wardogs was entering the next phase of development.
“Wardogs‘ growth story is far from over,” Elliott continued. “It’s got some maintenance hills to climb and a strong roadmap to deliver on before it can dream of reaching the heights of, say, an Arc Raiders.
“But make no mistake: even if it never sold another copy, Wardogs is already a huge success. It’s a $40 shooter aimed at a slightly unfashionable audience that stuck to its guns and turned out bloody great.
“You can’t really replicate what Bulkhead pulled off here, but they knew exactly who the game was for, priced it fairly, built the community before launch (and actually talked to them), cut the PR nonsense, were authentic (to a fault at times), and made something cool.”
On that $40 price point, Elliott suggested Wardogs hit “the modern pricing sweet spot, sitting below the friction point of a $70 AAA release while capturing that chunky volume of players priced out of premium titles.”
User reviews are now ‘Very Positive’ after initial complaints around launch problems. That appears to be done and dusted now, with players getting on with the game and having fun. A number of gameplay clips showing Wardogs shenanigans have gone viral (players are even avoiding Wardogs’ Lonestar faction over a perception that they seemingly attract the worst players and lose the most games).