Despite server struggles, Fall Guys has posted some impressive numbers in its first week.
We knew Fall Guys was going to be popular when we played it at E3 2019 and pronounced it our “winner” of the show. It’s a winning combination of battle royale games and Takeshi’s Castle, run through a visual filter that’s somewhere between Splatoon and Saturday morning cartoons.
We knew Fall Guys was going to be big. But we didn’t ever dream it would be this big.
It’s a bit of a perfect storm, really. It’s simple and intuitive to pick up and fun for all ages, but there’s an absurd technicality to it. It’s visually striking and kind of beautiful (in a chaotic, soft-play-area kind of way) but like those other multicolour, multiplayer phenoms (Fortnite and Rocket League) you can play it on just about any old potato. And it’s a game that’s just as much fun to play as it is to watch. Fall Guys is genuinely joyous in a world of gritty online shooters.
The game also has a killer social media presence. Obviously the marketing push from everyone involved – including publisher Devolver Digital and their PR agencies, Tinsley PR, Indigo Pearl, and all the others – has helped, but special mention must go to Mediatonic’s in-house communications folk, who have done astonishing things in the run-in to the release of Fall Guys. People think stuff goes viral by accident or by luck, but the success of the Fall Guys marketing campaign, particularly on Twitter, is no accident. Credit goes to Oliver, Haley, and everyone involved.
It’s fitting, then, that Oliver (we presume) took to Twitter to announce just how successful Fall Guys has been in its first week:
Alright, be honest…
❓ How many crowns did you grab ❓
❓ How many times did you fall over ❓
❓ How many hours did you watch on twitch ❓
❓ How many copies did you buy on Steam ❓Here are the totals: pic.twitter.com/uc2wtlIJ0Z
— Fall Guys (@FallGuysGame) August 10, 2020
That’s 2 million copies sold, 1.5 million crowns grabbed, and 23 million hours watched on Twitch. That’s astonishing, especially when you consider Fall Guys has struggled under server load that nobody could’ve predicted for a silly little indie game about bumbling jellybeans. Those numbers are up there with the likes of Fortnite, PUBG and Apex Legends.
It’s a brilliant game and its success is thoroughly deserved.
