Saros's low sales claims are looking increasingly likely

Saros hasn't been a slam dunk on the commercial side, it seems, despite high marks from reviewers and plenty of good words from the general player base. Alinea Analytics pegged Housemarque's Returnal tracking at around 300,000 launch copies, which is the kind of start that could mean the game ultimately fails to break even with investment. Things got worse when industry insider Jeff Grubb spoke in Alinea's overall favor just last week, further cementing the plausibility of those estimates.

Now we have our first look at real, albeit purely chart-driven, data points for Saros' release window in the US – the game's largest market, and a bellwether for much of the Western world. It doesn't look good.

Number nine

During the period between April 5 and May 2, which includes Saros' first three days on the market, the game only managed to crack ninth place overall. This puts it behind even Bethesda's seemingly somewhat muted PlayStation 5 relaunch of 2023's Starfield, though there's a caveat worth considering: Starfield came to PS5 on April 7, so it had a full month of data here.

It's impossible to say without seeing the raw numbers themselves – which are kept strictly confidential in US-based reports – but there's a real chance that Saros would be ahead of Starfield if we had more than just the first big burst of sales. But the earliest sales are likely to be the strongest, so don't take this as learning nothing in comparison.

Better news is that Capcom's new IP, Pragmata, came in second. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream took first prize. The game was destined to do gangbusters in Japan, but I wasn't quite sure if it would climb to the top in the US. Now we have our answer. The Nintendo Switch 2 was arguably the best selling hardware for the period in question.