Despite strong reviews, Hellblade 2 is struggling on Steam

Facts: Game didn't break the charts on day one.

Media: Game is struggling on Steam.

Facts: That's not what the data say, in fact some games come out with a bang, others have a long...

Media: OmD, will Ninja Theory survive?!

Can't have a healthier gaming industry if this passes for news, specially with that headline.

5th paragraph in, so they can say they weren't doomsayers:

While the numbers don’t look great, there’s currently nothing to worry about with Hellblade 2.

Edit: added clarity that the post started with a "dialogue".

I'm not surprised, to be honest. The first game was a success largely because of the interesting hook, which is that Senua is schizophrenic and they immerse you inside her mind by having voice constantly whispering in your ears, or sometimes a voice will rise above the murmur with something helpful, or not.

The actual game play though is not very good, it's actually pretty boring. So even if you were interested in that hook you probably played the first one but you're over it, and if you weren't intrigued enough to play the first one then you'll probably miss the second one too.

A six hour game that costs $50 and it's on gamepass isn't selling well? No shit.

I think there are a multitude of reasons for why it may not be doing well, but personally I had no clue it was coming out this month, I don't trust my PC to be able to run it (rtx 3070 isn't enough for a lot of high fidelity games these days), and I got hellblade 1 at full price and beat it in under 6 hours. I'm looking forward to playing it at a lower price and on better hardware in 4 years or something.

One is reviews. One is the actual players.

The game was actually terrible and only had a good story hook that wears out by the end and it's on game pass this time.

Nobody but hardcore fans are buying this on steam at full price.

Cool game, just lacking a bit in gameplay

Didn’t even know there was a hellblade 1