Astro Bot has sold 1.5 million copies, but Sony says the platformer's real strength is grabbing people who didn't care about games like God of War Ragnarok or Marvel's Spider-Man 2

Astro Bot, a charming platformer on PlayStation VR, has achieved strong sales exceeding 1.5 million copies, attracting new players and boosting PlayStation's reputation for critically acclaimed titles.

Sony has had some ups and downs over the last 11 months, but Astro Bot is bringing a strong end to the year with over 1.5 million copies sold since it launched September 6, 2024. 

In its Q2 financial results report, Sony claims that of those 1.5 million players, 37% hadn't bought a first-party PlayStation game in at least two years. That means they weren't enticed by the likes of God of War Ragnarok, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Horizon Forbidden West, or the various Last of Us remakes and remasters. Amidst a sea of triple-A leviathans, a lot of you just wanted a cute little robot.

As well as enticing new and lapsed players to the console, "The percentage of younger age groups and families purchasing the title was much higher than other titles, and the title is contributing significantly to a widening of the user base through the acquisition of new users and the expansion of our title portfolio."

I grew up on PlayStation's smaller (by today's standards, anyway) games, so it's nice to see its platformers still win the hearts of kids the same way they used to. Sony has also said it "gained a lot of experience" from the recent failure of Concord.

Astro Bot has also helped maintain PlayStation's reputation as a home for critically acclaimed games, as Sony's report proudly notes it has a "Metacritic score of 94 and has garnered high praise from the gamer community." The report also describes it as "a hit", which is good to see after Square Enix has said some of its games failed to meet expectations this year.

*If you haven't secured the platinum trophy yet, read our guide on where to find all the Astro Bot collectibles. *