Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sales explode, shipping two million copies in less than two weeks
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has smashed its arrival on the scene, crossing two million copies sold and swinging through some massive concurrent player numbers on Steam.
It's clear that turn-based combat still has its draws, as new reports about major Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sales have proven that it's already made an impact.
Originality feels a little few and far between in 2025, what with live service games continuing to hold their dominion. Fortnite is still the champion of all, and with the mind-blowing sales of Oblivion Remastered joining it, it's almost as if winning big in the industry is exclusive to games that have lasted for years, or for legacy titles that reflect games that have already become true classics. But, as games like Split Fiction, Balatro and Black Myth: Wukong have been able to prove, there is hope out there for games that strive to go it alone.
There's one game that has been catapulted into the stratosphere out of the blue, though – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has smashed it with new and curious players since it touched down on the field with an appearance on Xbox Game Pass, and across PlayStation and PC. The turn-based scrapper with a complex, layered narrative is grabbing some serious attention – and the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sales prove it.
A successful expedition
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sales are currently exploding, as it has maintained a consistent concurrent player number on SteamDB since its launch, with 105,880 players having played in the last 24 hours as of the time of writing, not far down from the game's all-time peak of 145,063 mere days ago. This is exclusive to Steam, too, and doesn't account for the players on Xbox Game Pass earning a chance to play the title at no extra cost.
The numbers keep on coming, too, as the game's team has taken to BlueSky to reveal that it has crossed two million Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sales. 'We've watched in awe as so many of you began your journey,' the account says. 'Feeling every step, every emotion, every revelation alongside you. To those just joining us: welcome.'
This news comes after Matt Handrahan, senior portfolio director of publisher Kepler Interactive, revealed in a conversation with The Game Business that its arrival in close proximity to the shock-drop of Oblivion Remastered didn't actually have too much of a negative impact on the title's launch.
'I knew plenty of people that would play an Elder Scrolls game that wouldn't necessarily play Final Fantasy and vice versa,' he says. "Also, by the time that we rolled around, we had momentum of our own and we felt pretty confident that we could stand beside it. I think there were other aspects, like the price point we were at and the inclusion in Game Pass… so we knew we would have a lot of interest around the game. We were confident in that. And it went as well as it possibly could have done in our eyes. And, actually, proximity to Oblivion didn't seem to harm us at all. In many ways, I think it just drew attention to quality RPGs that week and everybody was thinking and talking about the genre.'
It's a shocking blast of new players for Kepler that is hard to predict or prepare for, but these huge Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sales have done wonders to prove that turn-based RPGs set in entirely new worlds do have a market in a heavily-saturated gaming world. If we're lucky, this is a trend that will continue to spotlight the worthy up-and-comers that are too often left behind in the noise of the latest AAA remaster.
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