Summary
- Sonic Adventure 2's player count on Steam reached a new high following the premiere of the third Sonic movie.
- The success of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and the Knuckles show is benefiting the Sonic game series.
- A fourth Sonic movie is already confirmed to be in the works, a win for Sonic fans and Sega.
Sonic Adventure 2 may have come out in 2001, but that hasn't stopped players from flocking to it after the premiere of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The live-action film franchise was something of a surprise hit, seeing a decent amount of success despite a long history of video game movies struggling to live up to their source material. Publicity around the latest Sonic movie was enough to drive fans back to a 20-year-old title.
Video game movie adaptations may be breaking their years-old curse thanks to entries like the Sonic franchise and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The former has performed so well that Paramount confirmed Sonic the Hedgehog 4 before the third film even debuted. That wasn't the only effect the movie had, though, as fans are also turning to the games as the nostalgia wave reaches new heights.
As reported by TheGamer, Sonic Adventure 2 broke its concurrent player count record on Steam in December 2024, with 1,061 players. While just over 1,000 players may not be much by today's standards, it's worth considering that the game was initially released more than 20 years ago and has been on Steam for 12 years. These figures also come after Sonic Adventure 2 was delisted on Steam in Germany and Italy, leaving it with a smaller audience.
Sonic Movies Have Been Good News for the Games
The movie franchise has been beneficial for the Sonic games outside of Sonic Adventure 2's player count, too. Sega released a movie tie-in DLC for Sonic X Shadow Generations, and the mobile Sonic Dream Team added Shadow as a playable character to celebrate the third film installment. In an era where Sonic games have often fallen flat compared to their beloved predecessors, the extra promotion has helped the series climb back into the mainstream.
Paramount Plus' spin-off show, Knuckles, has also been good news for the brand. The show was one of just four Game Awards nominations for Sonic in the franchise's history. The second movie accounts for another one of those four, meaning half the nominations that Sonic has ever received have come not from the games that started the series but its film and TV adaptations.
How long Sonic Adventure 2's player count will remain high and if a fourth movie will have a similar impact on the games is yet to be seen. For now, though, it's a good time to be a Sonic fan and an even better time to be Sega.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a prolific game franchise that started life on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Covering both 2D and 3D iterations through the generations, Sonic is known for speedy movements and interesting platforming mechanics.
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