Atomfall developer Rebellion has said that its hit British survival game became “immediately profitable” upon release, despite the fact that a chunk of its 2 million players came from Xbox Game Pass — and therefore did not buy the title outright for themselves.
Rebellion has not revealed sales figures for Atomfall, which launched for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S back on March 27, 2025.
Instead, the developer has simply discussed the fact that Atomfall has been its biggest ever launch in terms of player numbers — something that will have been aided by Game Pass subscribers simply checking the title out via Xbox and PC.
Still, Atomfall has clearly not suffered as a result. Speaking to The Game Business, Rebellion said the post-apocalyptic northern England simulator had immediately made back its development costs.
And now, Rebellion says, the studio is currently discussing plans for potential sequels or spin-offs, while continuing work on Atomfall’s ongoing post-launch support and DLC.
In a previous interview with IGN sister site GamesIndustry.biz, Rebellion boss Jason Kingsley said that Atomfall’s launch as part of Game Pass had successfully avoided the risk of “cannabilising” sales.
“What you gain from that cost is disproportionate,” Kingsley said, noting that however a game sells, Microsoft does guarantee a “certain level of income” to mitigate risk.
Additionally, launching via Game Pass ensures the title is marketed and made available to a wide audience — aiding its potential for positive word of mouth to boost sales further.
“With Game Pass, you can get people to try it, then as a result of those people trying it, they like it, and they then tell their mates on social media, ‘I found this game on Game Pass, I really enjoyed it, you should have a go,'” Kingsley continued.
“And then some of them are on Game Pass, and will [play] it. But some of them aren’t on Game Pass, and will also want to be part of that conversation. So, they’ll go and buy it.”
Microsoft keeps details of its business agreements with developers confidential, so we can but guess at how much money Atomfall has made for both Rebellion and Microsoft itself — the latter of whom obviously benefits when games attract players to its subscription offering.
The latest Xbox Game Pass subscriber count released publicly by Microsoft is now somewhat outdated, but it placed the service on 34 million users as of February 2024.
“Atomfall is a gripping survival-action adventure that takes some of the best elements of Fallout and Elden Ring, and synthesises them into its own fresh mutation,” IGN wrote in our Atomfall review.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
