Opening day sales for Metal Gear Solid V surpassed Age of Ultron’s by…quite a lot. According to Adobe Digital Index’s gaming trends report, Metal Gear pulled in $179 million, while the second Avengers film only earned $84 million. Those are the global figures—and yep, Metal Gear earned about twice as much on opening day.
Considering that Metal Gear had a lower budget than Ultron, the numbers are even more significant. Metal Gear cost $80 million to make, versus Ultron’s $250 million budget. The disparity reflects the wider trend, too—gaming as a whole will be worth $91.5 billion this year, according to research group Newzoo, while film estimates are only at $88.3 billion for 2015.
Credit: Adobe Analytics
“The gaming industry is a lot bigger than most marketers realize,” said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst and director at Adobe. “These games get more social buzz on opening day than most movies do, and the revenue for one of the top games this year outdid the highest-grossing movie start [Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, at $91 million] by nearly double.”
The stats don’t give much information on how many individuals played the game versus how many saw the film (games tend to be pricier than movie tickets), or how these numbers play out beyond opening day, but it’s clear that the games industry is huge and growing.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain came out September 1 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Windows PC.
