Days Gone has been available for PC for a week now and appears to be a successful second introduction to the motorcycle adventure game from Sony and Bend Studio. As of May 23, it even managed to become the best seller of the week on Steam, beating out arguably the most hyped Mass Effect Legendary Edition. However, it doesn’t seem to have been as popular as Sony’s first PC port: Horizon Zero Dawn, at least on Steam.
Days Gone currently enjoys a higher player count of 19,053 players compared to Horizon’s 2,983, but that’s mainly because the former is new, while the latter has been available on Steam for almost a year. But, according to Steam Database, and reported by VG247, when Horizon launched for PC last August, it managed to attract 56,557 players, which thus far remains its all-time peak. Days Gone’s all-time peak, by comparison, is just 27,450, which it hit two days ago.
What makes this somewhat surprising is the fact that the PC launch of Horizon: Zero Dawn was quite difficult. When it was released, there were numerous reports of various issues, ranging from lag to outright game crashing. Days Gone’s PC port, on the other hand, was much more streamlined and included more PC features.
Perhaps the main reason for this is simply because of the respective reception of each game when they were first released on PlayStation 4. Horizon: Zero Dawn received a lot of praise from multiple outlets and was a bestseller. Days Gone also sold very well, but the critical reception was more divided. Also, of the two, Horizon has a sequel for the PlayStation 5, while Sony turned down the release of Days Gone for a sequel. Both games are also available on the Epic Games Store, so it is possible that Days Gone will surpass Horizon there, but there are no official statistics to confirm this.
Even though Days Gone works fine on PC, it remains to be seen if this will have an effect on Sony’s decision to reject the sequel. Even with its mixed reception, the game has cultivated a dedicated enough fanbase to want a sequel. A petition to convince Sony to change its mind soon went viral and, at the time of this writing, has more than 115,000 signatories. Sony hasn’t acknowledged the request and while there may be an audience for it, it seems highly likely that there will never be a sequel to Days Gone.
Days Gone is available for PC and PlayStation 4.
Sources: Days Gone on Steam Database, Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam Database, VG247
