Returnal Delivers a Soft PC Launch, Peak Concurrent Players Less than a 10th of God of War

Last week Returnal made its debut on PC after around two years as a PS5 exclusive. The PC port of Returnal was much-demanded by a certain noisy niche, but it seems not that many players are actually biting, as early stats indicate a somewhat soft launch.

According to SteamDB, Returnal’s concurrent playercount has peaked at 6,691, or around 10 percent of what games like God of War (73,529) and Marvel’s Spider-Man (66,436) have peaked at. That said, it could be worse – Returnal has still done much better than Sackboy: A Big Adventure, which peaked at a somewhat embarrassing 610 players. So no, Returnal isn’t an outright flop, but Sony and Housemarque were probably hoping for a stronger PC debut.

So, what might be the reason for Returnal’s performance? The game is more niche than other PlayStation games to begin with, so it was never going to do God of War numbers. That said, it does seem like some of the excitement about PlayStation games coming to PC has worn off and the rather long wait between the release of Returnal on PS5 and PC may have further blunted enthusiasm. It probably didn’t help that the Returnal port was somewhat of a mixed bag, exhibiting the frustrating stutter issues many Unreal Engine games suffer from according to Wccftech’s Alessio Palumbo…

“While [Returnal] compiles shaders the first time you launch it, stuttering is ever-present, despite not being picked up by the in-game metrics or benchmark. It’s there not only in the thickest of combat, where it is most annoying but slightly more understandable due to all the particles flying around, but also when you’re just moving throughout the environment on your own, with nothing else going on. […] I, for one, can’t wait to dive headfirst into Returnal; right now, though, I have to once again recommend that PC gamers be patient for a while longer while the worst of the technical issues are sorted.”

Returnal can be played on PC and PS5. What are your thoughts on the current state of PlayStation PC ports? Still satisfied with Sony’s efforts or should they be doing more?