Remnant 2's done very well. Granted, the first game, Remnant: From the Ashes, wasn't terrible either. We gave it a 77 back in our review back in 2019—a respectable score. It can't be overstated how much its sequel stepped things up in comparison.
Even if you just run the numbers: PC Gamer's Rick Lane gave it 84 in his Remnant 2 review, saying that it gave him "exactly what I want from gaming, namely unique and exciting adventures with my pals that never rely on the numbers going up to keep me planted in my chair."
The public seems to agree with that assessment. Remnant 2 sold a million copies in just four days. Well, now that number's doubled.
This was revealed in a quarterly report by the Embracer Group, which states the game: "sold more than 2 million units and generated more than SEK 700 million in Net Sales". Payday 3 gets a bit of a finger-wagging soon after. Not surprising, given its catastrophic launch, which the report very nicely calls "mixed." Honestly, Embracer's been having a really bad year overall, which begs the question: why is Remnant 2 continuing to do well?
For starters, it's… just the first game, but better. It gets you into its multiverse faster, it has more archetypes, more rings, a better handle on its procedural generation, and it feels way better to play. You can never underestimate positive word of mouth.
There's also what Rick pointed out, though—it's just good, simple fun. There's no drip-feed live-service nonsense, which means a lot in a market absolutely saturated with just that. There's no battle pass, no paid skins, no seasonal structure—though you can't fight Goku with a lightsaber, which is a personal miss for me. it's just a fun romp, and you can just… play it.
There's an Ultimate edition, sure, but it's like… three cosmetic armour sets and a few materials, and anyone who's played the game can tell you that 1,000 scrap is basically nothing. It gets you access to three planned DLCs, but the first one released this week and it's only $10.
It's not been all sunshine and roses, sure. There were some pretty major performance issues at launch, and said DLC is chugging my frames a bit even now. But on the whole, Gunfire Games' updates have been both sensible and measured.
For example: After players complained about the pricey respec costs (and some players were literally able to evade that tax) Gunfire made it way easier to respec. Archetypes also had some major quality improvements. For context, an Archetype is like a class—you unlock them by doing weird puzzles and paying some scrap.
Only, you had to do those weird puzzles (some of which could be very involved) again on each new character. Welp, no more. You unlock one, they're available on your alts, cheap as chips. There've been in-depth dev blogs that work through major balance changes, too, and that kind of transparency goes a long way.
So while I'm glad Remnant 2's doing well, I'm not at all surprised. In a world of annoying microtransactions, to have a game come out and just be… solid, bar some technical issues and quickly-fixed quality of life stuff? It means a lot. The slow-burn good will and affordable DLCs are just a cherry on top.
