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On September 6, 2024, Team Asobi and Sony released a new game as a part of PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, called Astro Bot. It is a sequel of sorts to Astro’s Playroom from 2020. Astro Bot is a 3D platformer where you play as the titular character, a cute little robot called Astro Bot, on a quest to rescue his fellow Bots, scattered all over the galaxies. It was praised far and wide since day one as one of the best Sony games out there, scoring 94/100 on Metacritic.
Platformers were one of the most popular game types when mainstream (PlayStation, Sega, Nintendo) consoles started appearing. Back in the early nineties, the majority of games were either platformers, sports, beat-em-ups, or racing simulators. As technology progressed, we got limited 3D platformers, and over time, with the rise of PCs, the platformers fell out of favor as the dominant game type. But that isn’t to say that there are no good 3D platformers out there. We got Sonic the Hedgehog (our favorite), Raymen, Banjo-Kazzoie, Ratchet & Clank, Spyro, and many more. And let’s not forget one of the most famous, if not THE most famous, platformers out there – Mario. But, with Astro Bot releasing and having such massive success, is Mario’s reign in jeopardy?
Astro Bot Outperformed Every 3D Platformer in Last 10 Years, Second Only to Mario
According to Christopher Dring, Head of Games Industry, Astro Bot sales are 34% higher than Sonic Frontiers and 52% bigger than Crash 4.
“It did more than that across Europe alone. But it can only play in the market it’s in. Astro Bot has done better than basically every new 3D platform game in the last 10 years (Mario aside). Its true success won’t be known for years, but it’s had a strong start for the genre.”
Let’s be real, Mario is a phenomenon, a cult classic by now. It would take quite an effort to remove it from the throne. However, the success of Astro Bot serves to say that there is still quite an interest in platformers. Maybe this is the beginning of a resurgence of platformers as mainstream games? We can only hope. Be that as it may, the fact that a family-friendly game like Astro Bot managed to outperform some other AAA titles is amazing.