Alright, if it really is the best-selling 3D platformer, maybe it’s headlining our conversation on Astro’s Playroom. It has been a claim that has been doing the rounds and has split gamers right down the middle. The tiny little robot’s adventure is said to have sold more than 80 million copies. That’s… wild, really! But then, wild or not, it’s because-it is pre-installed on every single PS5. So, is it *really* selling? Or is it just… lying there?
Kudos first to Team Asobi for creating a game that people *actually* want to play for free! Astro’s Playroom is more than a simple tech demo. It is a love letter to PlayStation history: full of charm, tightly controlled, and drenched with nostalgia enough to make any longtime Sony fan shed a tear. But there is the stickier part to getting into Liebholtz’ argument, calling it the best-selling 3D platformer ever.
You see, the 80 million figure comes from the game being bundled with every single PS5 that has been sold to date. On crossing that sales milestone, pretty much every Astro sold, too. Except that it is not really being sold to the gamers alone-is it just given for free? That has led to quite *fiery* debates online, with players sarcastically mocking the idea that it counts as an actual “sale.”
One user said in jest, *”So Astro Bot failed because sales dropped from 80 million to 1.5 million?”*-referring to the “somewhat modest” figures of the standalone sequel. Others were saying, *”It’s a free demo,”* while some argued that a bundle shouldn’t count the same way as a purchase. They were then followed by a few Nintendo mice punctuation: “Sorry, multiple Mario games have outsold it,” one snapped.
But would it *ever* matter how it got those numbers? Regardless of bundled or not, 80 million people have access to Astro’s Playroom. That is *such a massive* audience, and such an audience doesn’t count the game as crippleware that nobody ever touched. This game is amongst the dearly beloved. One called it a *”masterpiece,”* while the other vowed to *”1000% down”* for a port of Switch.
Now any discussion here is worthy of pure semantics. If we were speaking pure units in the hands of players, yes, Astro’s Playroom would totally take it. Asking for games that people have themselves sought after and have paid for would be slightly off-topic. Still, definitely a big accomplishment for pack-in.
Because in truth, the whole thing has become enjoyable for gamers. The original tweet was clearly a joke, but the internet took it and ran away with it. Some fans got defensive about it; others threw themselves into jokes like “First game to sell 100 Astrillion units,” and, behold, here we are, now debating the legitimacy of a robot’s sales figures.
In the end, *Is Astro’s Playroom an excellent game, whether ‘sold’ 80 million or just ‘played’ by 80 million?* Rumors swirling about a new Astro Bot game might have Team Asobi out of the pack-in business, anyway.
So, is it *really* the best-selling 3D platformer? Well, technically, yes. Spiritually? Debatable. But it’s a big win for PlayStation-and a little reminder that sometimes, the best games come in small, pre-installed packages.
