Farming Simulator 19 sales have crossed the 1 million mark in the game’s first ten days.
While the popularity of farming games like Stardew Valley is certainly understandable, it’s a bit baffling to hear that more realistic games of this type manage to do well. Surprisingly, Farming Simulator 19 sales have been pretty solid according to a tweet from the game’s developer.
We’re so thrilled to be able to announce that Farming Simulator 19 has sold over one million copies within the first 10 days after launch! Thank you so much for your support! #FS19 https://t.co/nvyZd2Occw
— Farming Simulator (@farmingsim) December 7, 2018
While there are plenty of fantastical games with a focus on farming, Farming Simulator 19 aims for a more realistic approach. Giants Software and Focus Home Interactive put a lot of effort into approaching the subject of farming in a realistic fashion. As an example, they have carefully crafted the various vehicles and pieces of equipment to be as accurate to their real-world versions as possible. The developers even went to the trouble to secure a licensing deal with equipment manufacturer John Deere – a first in the history of the franchise.
It’s a bit difficult to verify Farming Simulator 19 sales independently, but we can glean some clues from publicly-available information. Previous entries of the game had 500,000 to 1 million owners on Steam according to the sales database Steam Spy. This year’s release is pegged at 200,000 – 500,000 copies. Unfortunately, the newer numbers might not be as accurate since Valve had changed the way they made ownership data publicly available earlier in 2018.
Steamcharts can also give us some insight into how well the game is performing. The site’s page for Farming Simulator 19 shows that the game nearly had a peak of 60,000 players and is currently sitting at around half that – a pretty respectable amount for a relatively niche title.
Farming Simulator 19 is available on other platforms as well. PS4 and Xbox One sales surely made up a portion of the one million units that they’ve managed to move in just ten short days. If Farming Simulator 19 sales are as strong as the publisher says they are, this may very well be the most popular game in the franchise to date.
