Despite the monolithic obstacles of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered’s shadow drop and Bungie’s Marathon alpha test during its release week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues to be the little train that could. The turn-based RPG continues to see a lot of traction on social media praising its gameplay and story, high scoring aggregates, a live-action movie adaptation in the works, and continues to make sales and perform well on Steam. During its second weekend since release, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 saw a 19.4% increase in concurrent Steam Players shaming a majority of triple-A titles in the process.
During launch week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 saw 121,422 concurrent Steam players during its opening weekend and, during its second weekend, that number increased 19.4% to 145,063 Steam players setting a new peak record. Seeing an increase of Steam players during the second weekend has been a rare trend when it comes to most RPG titles. Dragon Age: The Veilguard saw a 31% drop during its second weekend, 28,8% drop for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and the list goes on with both games never breaking their peak count since their respective launch numbers.
Unfortunately, since it reached 1 million sales, French developer Sandfall Interactive hasn’t released any new sales figures for the successful turn-based game. However, according to SteamDB, the number of Steam owners is estimated to range from 673,000 to 1.26 million copies of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
The game continues to remain in the Top 10 Selling games on Steam at #3, right behind Oblivion Remastered, coming off the weekend as of 05/05/2025 at the time of this article’s posting. Steam achievements for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also paints a positive picture with 87.7% of players that happen to Embark on the Expedition, up from 85.5% and 10%, up from 1.4% who have reached The End since the game was released April 24th. Indications that Expedition 33 could have a strong player retention rate for its first month.
To put this in perspective, Assassin’s Creed Shadows saw only 7.9% of Steam players reach the Epilogue with Veilguard at 25.3% during their first months.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s continued success going into its second week shines a light on the triple-A industry and shames major triple-A titles by defying expectations and excuses made for singleplayer RPGs up to this point. Reasons offered for declines in regards to other RPGs such as Veilguard and AC Shadows include them being “solo player games,” “not a live service game,” and other similar arguments.
Even Oblivion Remastered saw a 34.6% decline in Steam player numbers from its peak of 216,784 to 141,739.
Whether it was the graphics, aesthetics, $50 price point, strong word-of-mouth, other factors, or a combination of all, it appears that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has that “je ne sais quoi” that is appealing to gamers and, as a result, is being rewarded for its efforts.
UPDATE: It was just revealed on X that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has just reached 2 million copies sold within its first twelve days.
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