Ghost of Yotei was the fourth best-selling game in the U.S. for September with just three days out on the market, according to the latest figures from Circana. Sonyâs latest open-world blockbuster appears to be doing just fine despite an attempted boycott by online grifters and their followers.
âWith one week in market, the US sales performance of Ghost of Yotei was basically flat to that of Ghost of Tsushima,â the research firmâs Mat Piscatella wrote on Bluesky. âIt did great. Ghost of Tsushima launched in July 2020 (if youâll recall, stuff was happening at the time that significantly boosted gaming), and the PS4 installed base at the time was significantly higher than the PS5 is today. Like, anyone with âconcernâ about this title should be looked at with a side eye.â
Ghost of Yotei was behind Borderlands 4, NBA 2K26, and EA Sports FC 26, which isnât surprising considering those are multiplatform best-sellers and the samurai revenge tale remains exclusive to PS5 right now. Sales were still enough to make Yotei the 18th best-seller of the year so far by revenue and the second best-selling game on PlayStation during the period, just behind NBA 2K26 but ahead of Borderlands 4 which had two additional weeks on the market.
Ghost of Yotei has been on the receiving end of a slow-burn reactionary backlash from online culture warriors ever since it revealed its protagonist was a woman named Atsu. Sheâs played by Erika Ishii who was attacked by the usual suspects for being queer and for posting about about defunding the police during the 2020 George Floyd protests. The flame war intensified after a Sucker Punch developer posted a joke about the Charlie Kirk assassination, with some calling for a boycott of Yotei even after the developer was fired for the remark. Boycott or no, it seems to have had little meaningful impact on Yoteiâs trajectory, at least at launch.
Is Borderlands 4 still a sales juggernaut?
The September sales figures have some other interesting nuggets to chew on. Borderlands 4 posted some impressive Ws but with a few major caveats. It was the best-selling game in the U.S. for the month and instantly hit number three for the entire year, with 30 percent higher dollar sales at launch than Borderlands 3. But Borderlands 3 was $60 instead of $70, didnât have a Super Deluxe Edition selling for $130, and wasnât initially available on Steam, where Borderlands 4 appears to have sold a good portion of its copies.
2K Games hasnât released any official sales figures yet. Borderlands 3 sold over 22 million copies and before that, Borderlands 2 hit 30 million. My guess is that Borderlands 4, a return to form hampered somewhat by PC issues at launch, ends up tracking somewhere in-between.
In other news, the PS5 has already outsold the entire PS3 generation in under five years. It has a couple of years left to beat the PS4 globally. I donât think anyoneâs ever beating the PS2. Not even the Nintendo Switch.
But my favorite sales data point of all from last month is Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. It came in ninth overall, and second on Switch, which is extra impressive when you remember itâs selling for only $50. Square Enix hinted at a possible sequel if it does well enough, or at least more strategy RPGs. Iâm buying everyone I know a copy for Christmas.
