Summary
- STALKER 2 has already turned a profit as of December 18, mere weeks since its release.
- GSC last said the game sold 1 million copies in its first 48 hours on the market, but that sales tally may have doubled by now.
- The game's budget might have been in the ballpark of $80 million.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has turned a profit, a senior GSC Game World official has confirmed. This crucial sales milestone was hit mere weeks following STALKER 2's release.
The latest entry in GSC's immersive sim series launched on November 20. Two days later, STALKER 2 had already sold one million copies, with the Ukrainian developer confirming as much in a social media post.
STALKER 2's Launch Was So Huge in Ukraine it Caused Internet Outages
Reports indicate that STALKER 2's launch was so massive in Ukraine that it overwhelmed local internet providers, causing outages.
Two days ahead of the game's first-month anniversary, STALKER 2 is already in the green, GSC owner Maxim Krippa told Forbes Ukraine. While he didn't provide an updated sales figure for the game, he confirmed that the project itself had a budget in the "tens of millions of dollars." Publicly available LinkedIn data suggests that GSC has approximately 400 employees as of late 2024. Naively assuming this headcount was consistent since 2018—when STALKER 2 restarted development—and using Glassdoor's estimate of the average Ukrainian game dev salary being $36,000 gross per year, it's plausible that the game's budget was north of $80 million.
STALKER 2 May Have Already Sold Around 2 Million Copies
Taking the 30% storefront cut into account, GSC earns roughly $42 from each copy of the STALKER 2 Standard Edition, which is priced at $59.99. Assuming an $80 million budget, the company would have needed to sell around 1.9 million copies to break even. However, even if this budget estimate is accurate, the studio likely had a slightly lower break-even target, as some sales would undoubtedly include the higher-tier Deluxe and Ultimate Editions, priced at $79.99 and $109.99, respectively. Ditto for the fact that the game is also available on the Epic Games Store, which takes a lower, 12% sales cut, but presumably accounted for fewer of its sales.
The Future of STALKER Is Looking Bright
Nevertheless, with Krippa now confirming that the project is already in the green, it's plausible that STALKER 2 sold in the ballpark of two million copies as of December 18. Its strong commercial momentum is great news for fans of the series, as it increases the likelihood of another game being greenlit in the future.
GSC turning a profit in less than a month is all the more impressive in light of the fact that STALKER 2 only launched on the Xbox Series X/S and PC. A potential PlayStation port would be all but guaranteed to boost its lifetime sales tally. And while a PS5 version of the game hasn't been officially confirmed, a court filing that emerged in the Epic v Apple case in mid-2021 revealed that Microsoft only secured a three-month exclusivity period for STALKER 2. It's unclear if anything has changed since then and if GSC is already actively working on a PS5 version of the game.
Source: Glassdoor, Screen Rant
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 75 /100 Critics Rec: 64%
- Released
- November 20, 2024
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco
- Developer(s)
- GSC Game World
- Publisher(s)
- GSC Game World
WHERE TO PLAY
Chornobyl Exclusion Zone has changed dramatically after the second massive explosion in the year 2006. Violent mutants, deadly anomalies, and warring factions have made the Zone a very tough place to survive.
Nevertheless, artifacts of unbelievable value attracted many people called S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s, who entered the Zone for their own risk, striving to make a fortune out of it or even to find the Truth concealed in the Heart of Chornobyl.
EPIC NONLINEAR STORY IN SEAMLESS OPEN WORLD
Take over a role of the lone stalker and explore photorealistic seamless open world in a 64-km² radioactive zone with a variety of environments that reveal post-apocalyptic atmosphere from different angles. Make your way through the Zone to define your destiny as you choose your paths within highly branching epic story.
VARIETY OF ENEMIES AND HUNDREDS OF WEAPON COMBINATIONS
Meet members of different factions deciding who of them worth your friendship and who deserve a bullet. Engage intense gunfights with a variety of enemies that follow different tactics trying to outsmart you. Choose your preferable firearms from 30+ types of weapons with numerous modifications that allow creating hundreds of distinctive lethal combinations.
LEGENDARY MUTANTS WITH DIFFERENT BEHAVIOUR MODELS
Prepare to encounter horrifying mutated creatures that will try to slaughter you following different behaviour model. Each mutant may appear in different subtypes which makes their behaviour less predictible. Truly extreme danger represent regions with lairs with numerous mutants hunting in large groups.
ARTIFACTS OF INCREDIBLE VALUE AND UNFORGIVING ANOMALIES
The most valuable artifacts and secrets of the Zone are hidden in the most dangerous places. Beware of the hazardous anomalies and unique devastating arch-anomalies as you hunt for highly valuable artifacts scattered around the Zone. Will you dare to unveil the mysteries of the Zone that took lives of many others before you?
GOOD HUNTING, STALKER!
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Franchise
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- First-Person Shooter, Open-World, Post-Apocalyptic, Survival
- How Long To Beat
- 36 hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 144.75 GB
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
