Hideo Kojima has announced that the Death Stranding player count has reached the 10 million mark, meaning that a whole bunch of players have experienced his deeply weird magnum opus. Not bad for a game that never saw the light of day on Xbox.
Over on Twitter, Kojima revealed the milestone, which commemorates Death Stranding‘s third anniversary. The game was originally released on the PS4 on this date in 2019, with PC and PS5 releases following in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Kojima says it “makes [him] happy” to think about the 10 million Death Stranding players around the world, who he says are all “loosely connected”.
Given that the theme of Death Stranding is connection despite isolation, there is something rather poetic about the game racking up a 10 million player count. It’s worth noting that the 10 million figure includes both sales and players on services like PlayStation Plus and PC Game Pass, but it’s still a pretty impressive number.
If you’re out of the loop on Death Stranding, here’s a quick primer. Created by Metal Gear‘s Hideo Kojima, it’s a difficult game to summarize; it’s a post-apocalyptic courier sim with an emphasis on walking and balance mechanics, as well as asymmetrical multiplayer to make the landscape easier to traverse for deliveries. Even that description feels like it doesn’t quite get to the heart of things.
The game performed pretty well commercially, as its high player count partially indicates, and a sequel was revealed by lead actor Norman Reedus back in May. The original game is available on PlayStation consoles and PC, and if you’re a PC Game Pass subscriber, you can play it via that service as well. If you’re a fan of Kojima’s and you’re yet to experience Death Stranding, it’s a very strange game, as you’d expect from the man who masterminded Metal Gear, but it’s worth a look.
