While many recent games have struggled to find success, that's not the case for Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment's Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, which recently crossed 6 million players across all platforms. That update comes via the latest financial results from PullUp Entertainment, the company behind Focus Entertainment.
"The performance of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is exceptional: the game concludes 2024 among the best-selling titles on major platforms, with 6 million unique players," said Geoffroy Sardin, deputy CEO of PullUp Entertainment. As Space Marine 2 isn't currently included in any gaming subscription services like Xbox Game Pass, it stands to reason the game is extremely close to 6 million copies sold.
Meanwhile, Warhammer IP holder Games Workshop is also extremely happy with the game's performance, with a recent report noting that for the first half of its financial year ending Dec. 1, 2024, the company saw earned income of £26.1 million, or about $31.8 million USD, the majority of which was driven by the release of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree points out that the company is looking for the next big game that can be a similar success, but also notes that these kinds of successes are hard to come by.
"Established games continue to contribute, alongside royalty income earned following the success of Space Marine 2. We recognise that successes like these for Warhammer are not a given in the world of video games. Clearly we are looking for the next one. We remain cautious when forecasting royalty income," he explains.
A large number of games, but few massive successes
While there have been other successful Warhammer games, such as the Total War: Warhammer trilogy of strategy titles from Sega and Creative Assembly, as well as Owlcat Games' role-playing game Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, these wins are definitely uncommon.
Looking ahead, the future is bright for Warhammer fans that want more games, as Saber Interactive is currently considering making DLC for Space Marine 2, or possibly even a full-fledged Space Marine 3. In the meanwhile, more updates are on the way, with new enemies and a Horde mode slated to arrive in-game later this year.
It'll be interesting to see just what other games get greenlit in the future, as the setting is absolutely brimming with potential for different factions and characters to get the spotlight across essentially any game genre. Personally, I'd love to see an Adepta Sororitas game in the vein of Space Marine, as well as a true survival-horror game from the eyes of an everyday individual in the Imperium.
Over in the world of TV adaptations, a deal has been reached with Amazon, and actor Henry Cavill's Warhammer 40,000 series is moving ahead, though it'll be a while before we have any other details on the project.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5, with cross-play support for all platforms in Operations and console cross-play in PvP.
