After nearly one month since launch, Housemarque's Returnal has earned praise for its immersive science-fiction in the gameplay genre of a third-person, action-shooter roguelike. While one month is long enough for many games to be played and subsequently shelved, the numbers generated from Returnal player data are staggering for the short period the PlayStation-exclusive title has been available.
Returnal developer Housemarque and Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe have combined efforts to share an infographic on Twitter, where the developer highlighted statistics from players who have chosen to share their gameplay data. The numbers shown are impressively high, which is a firm testament to both the game's achievements and Returnal's foundational gameplay loop intensity, where in-game deaths unforgivingly restart the player's progress.
The infographic depicts the number of hours played, player deaths, and enemies killed, as well as the enemy who players suffered deaths to the most and the most popular weapon used by players. Players have certainly been perishing at alarming rates, with just over 9 million player deaths. There have been 5.8 million hours played in just under a month of Reutrnal having launched, indicative of the game's reach. Further, Returnal remains a PlayStation exclusive game, and thus the statistic counts for hours played is far more significant under such consideration.
Sharing players' accumulated statistics is a terrific means of interacting and connecting further with the player base, as it may be interesting to gain perspective into how many others are sharing another player's experiences in the game. Understanding that Phrike is accountable for felling the most players is valuable knowledge for Housemarque as well, and the developer may alternatively wish to compile player gameplay data to help benefit features that do or do not work in the future.
Housemarque's statistics are shared as a result of the developer's celebration of a four-year development, although the game's launch has suffered from numerous issues. But despite problems relating to Returnal's game-breaking update patches and corrupt save files, the game has been heralded for its roguelike mechanic systems and how the game is able to utilize the PlayStation 5's unique DualSense gamepad for adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.
Gaming appears to be leaping forward into a roguelike renaissance with Returnal, particularly as Returnal arrives hot off of the roguelike Hades, which was nominated for a Game Of The Year award in 2020. If Housemarque's statistics are accurate, then Returnal's exclusivity has done nothing to hinder the game's popularity, and the popularity of roguelikes continues to reach new heights.
Returnal is available now on PlayStation 5.
