By Sandfall Interactive, the creator of the new turn-based title Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, has been quite vocal about how the team drew significant inspiration from various classic JRPGs, such as several Final Fantasy titles and the Persona series by Atlus. The game has now proven to be such an unexpected sensation that it is even eclipsing some of the legendary genre giants that influenced it.
As of this writing, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has attracted over 87,000 simultaneous players on Steam and the number is still climbing (the weekend is still young, so we anticipate further increases), as reported by SteamDB. This is a remarkable achievement for an original franchise from a debut developer, particularly in a subgenre previously thought to be stagnant a few console generations ago.
To provide context, Expedition 33 has now achieved a higher concurrent peak than all of Atlus’ titles on the platform, nearly doubling the peak of Persona 3 Reload at 45,000 and, more significantly since it’s not a remake, just surpassing Metaphor: ReFantazio’s peak of 85,961.
It’s impressive company to share so early in the developer’s journey (did I mention Clair Obscur is its inaugural game?) and it must feel gratifying to stand alongside the titans that inspired it.
What’s particularly remarkable is that Sandfall Interactive accomplished this feat despite launching amidst the surprise drop of Oblivion Remastered and releasing on Game Pass on day one, yet the developer still managed to sell over 500,000 copies within just one day.
Check out 9 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 tips to face the Paintress.