Metal Gear Solid V came out of the gates swinging, surpassing many series entry’s entire sale totals in a single day.
The Phantom Pain had quite a few people excited for its release earlier last month, and the sales numbers for the first day show exactly how ready the world was for Hideo Kojima’s probable swan song. Over $179 million in sales, which equals out to somewhere near 3 million units, were sold on that first day according to a new video game trends report. That report did not mention the digital/physical sales divide or much else besides this number, which matches a Japanese advertisement from Konami last month revealing the same number of units sold.
For comparisons sake, Metal Gear Solid V took only 24 hours to jump over the likes of Peace Walker, Portable Ops, Ground Zeroes, Metal Gear Rising and a host of remakes in total sales numbers. The top four selling titles in the series are, unsurprisingly, the four other numbered entries with Sons of Liberty currently holding the top spot at a little over 6 million units sold. At The Phantom Pain’s current pace, that record may not even hold until the end of the year.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain had a reported budget of $80 million dollars, meaning that this latest franchise entry – which received a perfect score from us – double its budget in sales on day one. This is not to mention the sales of the past month, holiday and bundle sales, microtransaction money, and DLC purchases that have likely made The Phantom Pain extremely profitable by now. With all of this money coming in, one has to wonder what kind of profits Konami were looking for that made their public disagreement with Hideo Kojima necessary in their eyes.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was also recently completed by Metal Gear Online for consoles. PC players will receive their version of said mode in January 2016. It is currently unclear if any other DLC is coming to Phantom Pain players beyond some cosmetic items on sale now.