While AAA Games Are Imploding, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Quietly Sold 4.4 Million Copies

Turns out you can still make a wildly successful game by just... making a good game. Who knew?

In a year defined by studio closures, massive layoffs, and underperforming blockbusters, a stylish French RPG has become one of the industry's brightest success stories. While the officially confirmed sales figure for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sits at 3.3 million, the team at Sandfall Interactive has revealed the real number is much higher.

In a recent interview with the French outlet Clips du Lundi, the developers confirmed that the game has already sold more than 4.4 million copies worldwide.

The Numbers Don't Lie

This isn't just a slow burn, either. The game, created by a team of ex-Ubisoft developers, had an explosive start. It moved a staggering three million copies in its first 33 days on the market alone.

Since then, it has added another 1.4 million copies to its total over the following few months. These are incredible numbers for any game, let alone one from a new studio in a year where the entire market is struggling.

The Anti-AAA Formula

So what's the secret? It's a simple, almost revolutionary formula that the rest of the industry seems to have forgotten: make a great game and sell it for a fair price.

Clair Obscur was made on a budget of less than $50 million and launched at a lower-than-average price point. Instead of relying on hype and microtransactions, Sandfall focused on pure craftsmanship, delivering a game that many critics and players agree rivals or even surpasses productions with five times the budget.

The only question now is whether the game can crack the five-million mark by the end of the year. For its publisher, Kepler Interactive, it doesn't even matter. The game is already a massive financial triumph and a perfect case study in how passion and smart design can absolutely body the bloated, risk-averse giants of the AAA world. Maybe the rest of them will take the hint.