Sonic Superstars' low PS5 sales lines up with series 400% player dip A recent Sega report suggests Sonic Superstars has seen low PS5 sales since launch despite high praise, and it's seemingly all down to poor planning.Lee Brady Published 30 Nov 2023 FollowtopicsSONIC SUPERSTARSSEGAPlayStation 5Industry NewsLee Brady With its host of enjoyably demanding Sonic Superstars trophies and platforming on par with some of the best Sonic games on PlayStation, it's safe to say that Sega's latest mascot platformer should have been a home run on PS5 and PS4. However, a recent Sega presentation suggests the recent release has met expectations, with Sonic Superstars seeing low PS5 sales for pretty predictable (and avoidable) reasons.Sonic Superstars' 400% player lurch reflected in poor salesAs reported by Eurogamer, a recent Sega financial presentation announced that sales for Sonic Superstars — which released on PS5, PS4, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch — were off to a "slightly weaker start than we had anticipated." In particular, it seems that Sega suspects it was the games that launched around Superstars' crowded release date — Tuesday, October 17, 2023 — that did the most damage.In a Q&A asking the company what might have caused the dip in expected sales, Sega responded: "We believe that the impact of other companies' major titles released at the same time is significant." While Sega didn't clarify which major titles, it's pretty easy to guess the two which may have had the biggest impact: Marvel's Spider-Man 2 on PS5 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder on Nintendo Switch.Launching the same week as Sonic Superstars on Friday, October 20, 2023, both Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 are also likely to appeal to Sonic's core demographic of young-to-teenage boys. Plus, both games were tentpole first-party releases for their respective consoles. As popular as Sonic continues to be, it's hard to imagine any third-party title performing exceptionally well when faced with the full might of Sony and Nintendo's respective marketing budgets.Sega goes head-to-head with Sony and Nintendo and loses — againNone of this will come as a surprise to many of the commenters under my report on Sonic Superstars' debut player count on PS5. The game had seen at least a 400% drop in PS5 players compared to Sonic Frontiers — a statistic that many users both on TrueTrophies and Reddit presumed was likely the result of the game's crowded launch window and, perhaps just as important, Sonic Superstars' price at launch.With the day-one price of a game now towering high at the $60-$70 price mark, it only makes sense that customers will start to feel far more limited on how many games they can afford at any one time. For Sonic Superstars to launch just a few days earlier than its clear competitor Super Mario Bros. Wonder — at the same price, no less — would have left most customers with a decision to make. A decision which should have been pretty predictable to Sega, a company with a history of sales defeats to Mario.What's more, it all seems like this dip in sales could have been entirely avoided were it not for some sort of lingering competitive nature lying dormant in Sega itself. As Eurogamer reported, Sega executive Osamu Ohashi expressed his want for Sonic "to surpass Mario." This comment came not long after Super Mario Bros Wonder producer Takashi Tezuka pointed out it was "an interesting coincidence" that the two old mascots would be launching in the same window in the first place.When I read it at the time, I couldn't help detecting a note of warning in Tezuka's comment — a light suggestion that going head-to-head with Mario would be a fool's errand. However, that seems to have gone right over the heads of Sega's chief decision-makers. Instead of changing course and maybe pushing Sonic Superstars' release date back by even a few weeks, the company charged on ahead and launched into a crowded launch window to predictably limited sales success.Having spent enough time with Sonic Superstars to earn its platinum trophy, I have to say it's a shame to see the game not getting more exposure. It seems some of the old guard at Sega still crave revenge against both Nintendo and Sony for having dethroned the Blue Blur all those years ago.That, or the sudden reveal of both Sonic Superstars and Super Mario Bros Wonder really took both companies by surprise. That's somewhat less dramatic a take, so I imagine that's somewhat closer to the truth. Still, at least Sega has a plan — apparently, the company has been saving at least 90% of the marketing budget for Sonic Superstars for the holiday period. So, perhaps a wave of new players will get the chance to play one of the best 2 player PS5 games after all. What do you think of Sonic Superstars' disappointed sales performance? Let us know down in the comments below.More SONIC SUPERSTARS stories: The best Sonic games to play on PS5 in January 2025 Check out these hard platinums in the PS Store Spring Sale Is Sonic Superstars worth the price on PS5 and PS4? Sonic Superstars debuts on PS5 with 75% less players than Frontiers Sonic Superstars reveals trophy list with big replay value on PS5 Industry NewsPlayStation 5 Written by Lee BradyNews Editor Lee covers the latest upcoming PS5 games like Ghost of Yotei while making sure PlayStation Plus’ classic PS1 and PS2 games are given enough respect. Lee leads the charge on our original data analysis courtesy of Game Lens. His 25 years of PlayStation experience compliments his love of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Sonic the Hedgehog.