God of War: Ragnarok is the fastest-selling first-party game in PlayStation history

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Sony has announced that God of War: Ragnarok is the fastest-selling first-party game launch in PlayStation history.

As revealed in a tweet (below), God of War: Ragnarok sold 5.1 million copies in its debut week. Of course, as the post points out, that means it also set a franchise record for God of War.

The tally presumably includes both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 copies, as well as physical and digital sales, but several games spread across two platforms have come and gone before that without equaling such a record.

In comparison, God of War (2018) has surpassed 23 million copies sold on PlayStation 4 and PC as of November 2022. Back in October 2021, the game was reported to have sold 19.5 million copies, but its launch on PC took it to a new audience.

It was also Sony’s biggest launch on PC to date, and it’s entirely possible that Sony could bring God of War: Ragnarok to PC and increase its sales there as well.

Sony Santa Monica put a lot of effort into the game, even its villains like Heimdall, Odin and Thor put a lot of effort into making them fully realized characters.

Top 10 fastest selling games of all time

Here are the top-selling games, ranked by estimated release week unit sales (where available – some games are based on three-day reports). GTA V sold 16.5 million copies in three days, followed by Cyberpunk with 13 million in the first week and MW3: 12.9 million. Pokemon Arceus at number 10 sold 6.5 million units.

In the IGN review of God of War Ragnarok, we said, “According to its core themes, it’s everything a sequel should be: respectful of its legendary lineage but unafraid to take it to exciting new places. God of War Ragnarok is an almighty achievement and sets a new high that makes many of its peers look positively mortal by comparison.”

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He has been writing about the industry since 2019 and has collaborated with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR and Variety.

When he’s not writing about video games, George plays video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

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