The Evil Within II Sells an Estimated 211,000 Units First Week at Retail in the West

The third-person survival horror game from publisher Bethesda Softworks and developer Tango Gameworks - The Evil Within II - sold 211,418 units first week at retail in the west, according to VGChartz estimates.

[FallenAngel1984]

Some of Bethesda’s latest AAA games seem to have had issues with selling a lot.

[UltraNova]

Tbh when did horror games sell in the millions, especially in this day and age?

They can add +1 this Christmas, I need my dimented horror fix!

[andydalum]

It's like everyone expects any bethesda game to sell skyrim and fallout numbers lol.

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Ultra

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s been happening very frequently.

Resident Evil 7 sold 4+ million, Bloodborne sold 2+ million, Alien: Isolation sold 2+ million, Dying Light sold 5+ million, Friday the 13th sold 2+ million, Until Dawn sold 2+ million, Dark Souls 3 sold 3+ million, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 sold 2+ million, Amnesia sold 1+ million, The Last of Us sold 12+ million, & the original The Evil Within sold 4+ million and held the record for the highest-selling first month of sales for a new survival horror intellectual property before the record was later broken by Dying Light.

So no it’s not impossible for a horror game to sell in the millions in the modern industry.

@ andy

People expect Bethesda games to at least do as well as their predecessors.

- Dishonored 2 didn’t sell as well as the original, but still pulled respectable numbers in the end.
- Prey far underperformed expectations commercially.
- Now The Evil Within 2 may not be as successful commercially as its predecessor but could still sell a considerable amount like Dishonored 2.

People would like to see Bethesda’s non Elders Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, & Doom franchises perform well. Nothing wrong with having such expectations unless you yourself are inherently pessimistic at the notion.

[UltraNova]

Fallen,

I was referring to first month sales, perhaps a publishers most important metric- did not clarify. Agreed, however.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Most of the games you are mentioning are more so the exception and not the rule though. I mean...we can't just mention Resident Evil and The Last Of Us and pretend that is the norm of horror sales lol

"the original The Evil Within sold 4+ million"

In the first week?

Did you also forget Evil Within 1 released on 5 platforms?

PC, PS3,PS4, XONE,360..

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Ultra

Then why even specify horror games when many games in different genres don’t sell a million in their first week? That’s not a common occurrence for every other genre aside from horror.

Besides that VGC isn’t even reporting on TEW2’s first month sales, it’s the first week sales.

@ Edmix

They’re not the exception when you’re talking AAA horror games. There’ve been enough success stories consistently occurring in the genre to show it’s not something rare.

I’m not talking about about first week sales I’m talking about how much those games ended up selling.

Even with two less platforms TEW2’s sales are still dramatically lower than the original.

[-Foxtrot]

That's a shame...it's a fantastic game and such an improvement on the first one. One of the best survival horror games this year, still trying to do Classic Mode, it's brutal. They improved on almost the majority of the complaints of the first game yet reviewers were still harsh to it, I saw them talking about the improvements yet some gave it like half a point higher or gave it the exact same score.

Part of this is Bethesdas fault, they released it so close to Wolfenstein II, a game they marketed the shit out of which overshadowed the Evil Within.

I hope we get a third game, it kind of left it open for another.

[UltraNova]

Fox, is it scary or ' we've seen it all before' scary?

How's the gunplay and resource management?

[Forn]

If you play on the hardest difficulty, stealth kills are your friend. You won't be getting a lot of ammo for your guns. As far as the scare factor, there were times where I was definitely on edge. It didn't scare me as much as something like Outlast did however.

[UltraNova]

Forn, thanks for the feedback but shamefully, wont be playing on hard, dont have the time to grind in any game.

[DarkOcelet]

There is hardly any grinding in TEW 2. You can speed run it on the hardest difficulty with what you get while playing the game normally but ofc that's not recommended for first time players since it requires knowledge of the game mechanics and what works best with what enemies.

It's a great game and you will definitely enjoy your time with it. Let's hope it manage to sell well by the end of its lifetime because I would love to see a third part.

[UltraNova]

Dark, thanks. I'm definitely buying it.

Edit: By grinding I meant Hard Difficulty trial and error, due to less resources and increased ememy health.

[-Foxtrot]

It's scary to a degree, obviously not Dead Space or old school Resident Evil/Silent Hill scary but their are a bunch of moments in the game where you are low on ammo for a certain section and events happen which speeds up the pace...like enemies you thought were dead rising up or some huge monsters bursting through the streets to find you.

The game is full of content aswell, like they introduced the Gun Gallery from RE4 into the game where you can win prizes to help you win green gel or weapon parts

Great game and like I said an improvment on the first game. The voice acting is miles better, the story is typical but works for this game, blend of open world and isolated spaces, sneak is improved, upgrading guns is a reward if you search for parts, same goes for finding green gel for your skills. It's just a very good sequel that stays true to it's roots...unlike a certain "other" survival horror game this year which had to change most of the game/setting to find a new audience.

[Sirk7x]

If you're playing on the hardest difficulty, it is a very tense game.

[UltraNova]

@fox

Great then, thats all I needed to hear, good story and acting and some solid gameplay. Thanks.

[kevnb]

If these numbers are accurate this is a good first week I think. I guess it depends on the budget.

[TricksterArrow]

The game still lacks charisma, IMO. I see screenshots, videos and I feel like there is no sense of identity and the characters seem rather bland. In a horror game, I usually need to be attached to the main character to feel anything whatsoever.

Maybe that's why I despise the recent trend of making every single horror first-person. Horror by itself does nothing for me, but give me a character I care about not being mangled, and you got yourself a winning formula with this old SH aficionado.

[thepatientgamer]

I can guarantee that this game has charisma in spades. I was worried about the looks of it too given how much I loved the grittiness and darkness of the first game. However, the screenshots just don’t do this game justice. These guys have quite literally found the fricken sweet spot. Playing this game is a revelation compared to the first. Just make sure you play on nightmare since you have played the first game.

[xenz]

I was originally planning on picking this game up on launch day. Unfortunatly due to so many games releasing I had to prioritize. My next payday is tomorrow, will be picking it up then.

I believe many people are in the same boat as me. The game is supposedly much better than their first outing. I really do hope this game sells well over the long run.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I actually don't think Wolfenstein II is overshadowed the Evil Within 2. Evil Within 2's long term sales could pick up and be similar to the first title. Also consider this isn't release on 5 platforms like Evil Within 1

[2pacalypsenow]

Game sold 211k not 76

[andydalum]

I'll never understand why they release games like this around this time of year. Release it in april when people will buy it because they need a new game and if it's good which this one is it will sell alot more.

[Seraphim]

Recently we've seen more and more games being released between Jan-April. Not sure if it's in part due to scheduling or publishers are becoming more and more afraid to release before or too close to Black Friday. I mean who would want to release a game right before any and all games except CoD go on sale at 50% off. But we've definitely seen a shift with a lot more games being released early in the year, while for the most part, your annual titles hit in the Fall. Then Summer is hit or miss with maybe a few titles dropping at best. The golden months are Aug-Nov and Jan-April though.

Personally I think a bulk of the better games are actually releasing in this window; Jan-April. Especially so the past 2-3 years. Last year Horizon, Nier, Persona 5, Ghost Recon and Nioh just to name a handful. You can throw Zelda in there with an asterik. 2018 isn't looking nearly as great [imo] because the previously mentioned were just that good. While there's been some fantastic stretches of gaming over my 30 some years of gaming I can't recall any single time bringing so many memorable games all jam packed into 3-4 months. Every single one of those games could easily be GoTY imho, except Ghost Recon though it was a blast to Platinum and play with 2 friends. Not to knock '18 either because we're still looking at some great titles such as Monster Hunter, Shadow of the Colossus, Far Cry 5, Ni No Kuni 2, and possibly God of War since it's usually released in March though the latest placeholder I saw was June so who knows. And perhaps more importantly Monster Hunter alone might keep me as busy and entertained for as long, if not longer than all of 2017s early releases. 3 of which saw Platinums and a TON of time played.

Anyway, I think for Horror games releasing late in the year makes sense. One reason, Halloween. Though as someone else mentioned, Horror games are just a hard sell period. Not including Bloodborne I couldn't even say what the last horror game I played was. RE5 certainly wasn't horror. So maybe RE4 on Gamecube. I did buy Evil Within when it was on sale, maybe 2 months ago but unfortunately I just couldn't do it. Sometimes, like with The Last of Us, the player movement causes me to get nauseous. This same movement is used in Evil Within 1. While I got through it with The Last of Us and completed the game I just couldn't, rather, had no desire to do it here.

[DigitalCentralMedia]

Or during the Summer. Barely any games come out during the summer.

[PhoenixUp]

Cuz it’s a horror game, of course they’d release it in October

[andydalum]

Being close to October obviously doesn't translate into people buying a horror game over all the other major releases around that time.

[PhoenixUp]

It worked for the first game, of course they’d do the same thing with the second game.

[81BX]

Got it digital.

[EmperorDalek]

Bethesda just Titanfall 2'd this and Wolfenstein 2.

[xenz]

Two games wich deserves so much better. Its a shame really, that shitty games like NFS Payback or SWBF2 sells so much more..

[kevnb]

According to vgchartz... it could be higher or lower.

[SovereignSnaKe]

I started it last night, so far it's fantastic, not as scary as the first game, but much more investigative supernatural thriller ala Alan Wake, Twin Peaks, Deadly Premonition and Silent Hill. Specifically the Czechoslovakian developed addition to the series; Silent Hill Downpour. Also the Scorpio enhancements make it a thing of beauty.

[deaddragonz]

I know I'm just one person, but I personally wait for black friday to pick up games out in October/November.

[jc12]

Im currently on chapter 12...I'm really enjoying the game so far. I'd say the experience is roughly on part with the first game, though technically, TEW 2 is quite a bit better.

[TheOttomatic91]

Damn it and this game is SO good too :(

[NXFather]

Yeah some of you guys on n4g will always make these weird games seem great. Thankfully most people in the real world aren't so obsessed as these hardcore gamers on this site.

[NXFather]

This game is not so bad but, I really wonder what makes some of these developers think these games are dope. Money must be too huge of an issue.