In the wake of an incredible run at The Game Awards last week, during which Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won a record-breaking nine awards and announced a free DLC out right now, a whole lot of people are purchasing and/or downloading the game to see what all the fuss is about.
This observation comes from multiple data sources, all of which are pointing to a sudden rush of players to Clair Obscur across platforms. On Steam, the game reached a peak over the weekend of 56,993 players, according to SteamDB. The numbers haven’t been that high since June.
The game’s popularity is reflecting in sales, as well. According to Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, sales of Clair Obscur have spiked since The Game Awards. They’re up 76% on Steam, 21% on PS5, and 3% on Xbox (where it’s available on Game Pass). Alinea’s estimate is that this amounts to over 200,000 more copies sold in just a few days.
But returning players are also coming back. Mat Piscatella, senior director at Circana, said that “the percent of US active PS, XBX and US Steam players engaging with the game more than tripled by Dec 13th when compared to Dec 10th. US Steam showed the largest lift,” in a Bluesky post. Piscatella affirmed that this was the highest total of players engaged on Steam since June 1, with Xbox in the US seeing its highest total since June 27, and PlayStation in the US since June 10th.
It’s an incredible spike no matter how you look at it, reflecting both those playing for the first time as well as returning players giving the free DLC a shot. It’s likely that its run of awards had something to do with this, especially since one of those awards was Game of the Year. It’s gained so much attention that even French president Emmanuel Macron spoke up to congratulate developer Sandfall Interactive.
If you, like all these other people, are just starting Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 this weekend, here at IGN we have a helpful Beginner Guide that you may find useful to read through as you start. You can also check in on our list of things Clair Obscur doesn’t tell you, or our full Walkthrough in case you get stuck.
We at IGN also loved Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, giving it a 9/10 and writing: “Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 paints itself into the pantheon of great RPGs with a brilliant combat system and a gripping, harrowing story.”
