ReFantazio Sales Pass One-Million Mark After One Day

One day is all it takes for a legend to be born. SEGA announced Metaphor: ReFantazio broke the one million copies mark within the first day.

To put this meteoric rise in perspective, Atlus’ previous bestseller was Persona 3 Reload, which took a week to hit similar numbers.

Meanwhile, as of this morning, Steam charts show player numbers at a peak past 52000 and rising. This puts Metaphor: ReFantazio at the 23rd most played game right now, sandwiched between Baldur’s Gate 3 (49647) and Team Fortress 2 (55761).

Metaphor: ReFantazio Review

It’s more than just fantasy Persona, it’s a JRPG triumph in its own right.

These numbers are far from complete. Metaphor: ReFantazio is also available on PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbxos Series X and S. Unlike Valve, neither Sony nor Microsoft make their players or sales numbers public on demand.

According to SEGA, the game reached the record around 3 hours ago, so it may not be long until Metaphor: ReFantazio smashes past the 2 million mark.

Tell Us A Story

Metaphor: ReFantazio is a classic Atlus title at heart, and its success says a lot about what players crave.

Helldivers 2 delivered an exciting but ephemeral live service experience, which made for awkward conversations after its player count plummeted after bungled patches.

While live service games are not going away any time soon, story-driven games like Metaphor: ReFantazio help big industry names recalibrate their focus.

The graphics and interface do not go crazy lengths with raytracing and scanned fingernails, the combat mechanics follow the tried and tested JRPG “Excel Warfare” format, but none of that matters.

Metaphor: ReFantazio: Every Archetype, Ranked

All are viable, but they aren’t created equal.

Fancy graphics and hypercomplex combat or movement are great, but you need the players to answer a simple question: “why should I care?”

The visuals of Metaphor: ReFantazio have a coherent art style that the combat plays into, which helps players get immersed in the story.

Metaphor: ReFantazio reminds Mr. Big AAA Executive that there is a lot of money and player loyalty to be made with a good story that stands up on its own.

By focusing on making a good game today rather than pushing to make “the game of tomorrow”, Altus has succeeded where most AAA industry players have faltered in recent years.