According to an investor analysis report from Zeus Capital, Planet Coaster 2 hasn't lived up to expectations when it comes to revenue and reception from the playerbase, and it doesn't look like anyone's too surprised.
Despite selling over 400,000 units within two months of release and earning over £10 million, "cash flows are still negative," an excerpt from the report says (via Reddit). "This is considerably better" than Warhammer [Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin] "that was impaired," but even still [Planet Coaster 2] "has had relatively poor reviews on platforms such as Steam (60% positive) and PlayStation (3.69/5). Frontier will be working on free updates and fixes to improve player sentiment which likely comes at the expense of developing and releasing PDLC in H2 2025."
Planet Coaster 2 'cash flow still negative' from r/pcgaming
Analysts expect a "lower revenue sustain rate" than some of Frontier's previous releases, driven by mixed reviews, the existence of console releases, and the fact that it was put on sale just a month after release, and the lower that rate goes, "the greater the importance of the success of [Jurassic World Evolution 3], which is licenced-IP and therefore lower gross margin than own-IP games."
- Planet Coaster 2's latest update adds synchronised rides, customisable video billboards, and stops guests suffering from perpetual panic
- Cities: Skylines 2's asset editor remains a distant dream: Colossal Order is still working on it but says it's 'proven more technically challenging than initially anticipated'
The hope is that the revenue brought in by Jurassic World Evolution 3 will eventually offset the loss of revenue incurred from Planet Coaster 2. It also appears that revenue estimates for older games like Planet Coaster and Elite Dangerous have been increased, as the hope is that players will carry on spending money on older games.
The report also mentions that Frontier's sales and marketing expenses have been lowered, as the second half of 2025 "is expected to see a lower proportion of development spend being capitalised because of the time spent on updates and fixes to Planet Coaster 2."
Despite having some impressively powerful creation tools in Planet Coast 2, many players seemed less than happy with the lack of content available at launch. "Many customizable options that existed in Planet Coaster are now missing, along with a large number of themes," one negative Steam review says. "The thing that bothers me most is how much of the available scenery is very theme-specific. Many Viking pieces, for example, have textures that are difficult to use in other themes. In contrast, the original themes in Planet Coaster felt more generic or multi-purpose."
All of this is to say some players really aren't surprised that Planet Coaster 2 was something of a financial flop. "It didn't seem different enough from Planet Coaster, in my opinion," another player says. "Water parks, for example, was an expansion for Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 (which was also from Frontier)."
It seems like Frontier will have to deal with a similar situation to what Paradox faced after the disappointing launch of Cities: Skylines 2. After a bunch of complaints from players, Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen said that there would be no paid DLCs, under all the performance issues were fixed. Over a year later, after updates, patches, and some new content (some of which was refunded) the devs are still working to regain the trust that was lost amid the messy release. Planet Coaster 2 will probably take a similar amount of work if the devs want to push its Steam review rating up from 60% which is mixed and towards something a bit more positive.
