Summary
- Costly open-world games often struggle to meet sales expectations despite bold gameplay concepts and distinct settings.
- Games like Watch Dogs Legion and Sunset Overdrive faced commercial challenges despite their unique features and engaging worlds.
- Mad Max and Sleeping Dogs are beloved open-world titles that, while cherished by players, failed to achieve strong sales figures.
Triple-A open-world games often boast massive sales fueled by the genre's immense popularity among players. Indeed, it's thrilling to dive into a vibrant, sprawling world now and then, with vast maps to explore, a wealth of activities to conquer, and memorable characters to meet. As some of the lengthiest titles on the market, open-world games typically promise dozens of hours of adventure for the price of entry, ensuring players feel they've gotten their money's worth.
8 Open-World Games With Best Map Activities
These open-world games really stand out from the crowd for their points of interest and varied side activities on the map.
Yet, despite the high demand for these games, success in the ever-changing gaming market is never guaranteed. Even a stellar game can struggle to find its audience and sell well. Factors like rushed releases or a plagued technical state at launch have also doomed many otherwise remarkable projects. The following are a few great open-world games that, for various reasons, fell short of sales expectations, failing to captivate the audience they truly deserved.
1 Watch Dogs Legion
Estimated Sales: 4 million
Watch Dogs Legion
- Released
- October 29, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
Watch Dogs Legion wasn't a downright flop, but for an open-world game of its scope and ambition, as well as being the third chapter in an established, successful series (both Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2 sold over 10 million units each), its sales were underwhelming for Ubisoft. The game's lukewarm reception is widely seen as the reason the Watch Dogs series has been shelved indefinitely, with no new projects announced in the franchise over the past four years.
And that's a shame, as Watch Dogs Legion isn't a bad game by any means, especially when viewed as a bold spin-off experimenting with fresh ideas. Its standout selling feature – play as virtually anyone – is daring and delightful, complemented by the game's striking vision of a futuristic London. There's plenty of enjoyment to be found in Watch Dogs Legion, especially since it's frequently available at steep discounts across various platforms.
2 Mad Max
Estimated Sales: 2.5 million
Mad Max
- Released
- September 1, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Open-World
The Mad Max franchise isn't synonymous with blockbuster fame. While many of its films are now iconic, they rarely dominated the box office, with the latest, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, proving an outright commercial flop. The Mad Max game, though not a disaster on that scale, suffered from unfortunate timing, launching nearly four months after Mad Max: Fury Road's global release, which likely harmed its sales.
7 Best Open-World Games With Changing Seasons, Ranked
These games bring their settings one step closer to feeling truly lifelike, adding dynamic seasonal changes to great effect.
Over the years, Mad Max has been widely regarded as one of the most underappreciated open-world titles, with more players discovering the thrill of roaming its savage wasteland, storming outposts, and piecing together the Magnum Opus from scraps. True, the game doesn't reinvent the wheel, borrowing its visceral combat from the Batman: Arkham series and populating its vast map with repetitive tasks. Yet, for many, its gritty, adrenaline-fueled execution is more than enough.
3 Star Wars Outlaws
Estimated Sales: 2 million
Star Wars Outlaws
- Released
- August 30, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen // Violence, Simulated Gambling, Mild Language
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action-Adventure
Star Wars Outlaws stands as a glaring recent case of a costly open-world game that fell flat by every measure. Released when Ubisoft was already grappling with challenges and plagued by technical glitches, Outlaws sold dismally despite its bold promise as the "first true open-world Star Wars game" fans had long yearned for. To Ubisoft's credit, the company swiftly tackled the game's technical and gameplay issues through numerous post-launch updates, but these efforts couldn't undo the damage of a lackluster first impression.
Now, Star Wars Outlaws offers plenty to savor, with its vivid Star Wars worlds stealing the show, crafted in breathtaking detail by Massive Entertainment. The alien landscapes are a visual feast, a joy to roam, while the game's seamless shift from planetary landings to spacefaring sets a bar few rivals have matched. True to Ubisoft's style, Outlaws can feel slightly overstuffed, but its story campaign strikes a neat balance, delivering a cinematic, concise, and gripping adventure true to the brand's essence.
4 Sleeping Dogs
Estimated Sales: 2 million
Sleeping Dogs
- Released
- August 14, 2012
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action
Sleeping Dogs is a textbook example of a beloved open-world game, cherished by players long after its release, yet its glowing reputation never translated into strong lifetime sales. Had it launched under its original title, True Crime: Hong Kong, it might have fared better, but as it stands, the game sold very poorly. Additional efforts to build it into a lasting franchise, including a troubled adaptation first teased back in 2017, have, so far, come to naught.
8 Best Open-World PC Games With Extensive Modding Communities
Open-world games on PC are some of the most popular for modding communities, allowing the players to really tailor their own experience.
Without a doubt, there's no shortage of reasons to adore Sleeping Dogs. Its vivid rendition of Hong Kong pulses with life, brimming with all manner of criminal underworld dealings. The cinematic story captivates, while handcrafted side quests introduce memorable characters and situations. A stirring soundtrack, striking visuals, and a raw, unmatched martial arts combat system round out the package. Lean and immersive, Sleeping Dogs avoids the bloat often found in open-world titles. Simply put, it deserved far more than the 2 million copies sold, and even the extra 500,000 from the Definitive Edition re-release couldn't right that wrong.
5 Sunset Overdrive
Estimated Sales: 2 million
Sunset Overdrive
- Released
- October 28, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Open-World
It's easy to see why Sunset Overdrive never became a huge blockbuster. Tied exclusively to the Xbox One for four years before a belated PC release, Insomniac's vibrant title missed its chance to shine on more popular platforms. By the time it reached PC, the moment for significant sales had passed, and the initial pitch for the sequel was reportedly shelved due to lackluster commercial performance.
Yet, Sunset Overdrive had all the makings of a breakout hit, if only it hadn't been shackled to the Xbox One ecosystem. Its bold, colorful universe bursts with quirky chaos, blending high-octane action and slick, fast-paced traversal mechanics. It's no surprise Insomniac Games was later tapped for Marvel's Spider-Man, which soared as one of the PS4 era's top-selling open-world triumphs — a testament to the creative spark that Sunset Overdrive showcased so vividly years before.
6 Rage 2
Estimated Sales: 1.5 million
Rage 2
- Released
- May 19, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes
- Genre(s)
- FPS
Rage 2 channels a Mad Max-like allure, plunging players into a post-apocalyptic open-world wasteland brimming with vehicular chaos and frenetic combat — though, like the Mad Max game, it yielded disappointing financial results for Bethesda. The original Rage was hardly a trailblazer, so crafting a tonally distinct sequel after an eight-year gap was a bold gamble. Perhaps the appetite for such a world isn't as strong as hoped, even when swapping gritty melee brawls for a first-person shooter infused with supernatural flair.
Still, Rage 2 feels like it deserved a better fate. Avalanche Studios delivers thrilling Mad Max-style driving, while id Software brings signature Doom-esque combat. A robust arsenal, dazzling visuals, and a slew of electrifying abilities invite endless experimentation. Missteps in marketing may share the blame, hyping the game as zanier than its reality and potentially steering players to anticipate a Borderlands-like romp rather than the more grounded shooter it truly is.
7 Best Open-World Maps In Singleplayer Games, Ranked
It's no easy task to design an amazing, immersive open-world map, but these singleplayer games have done a fine job of it.