Update 25-06-2025:Xbox games marketing vice president Aaron Greenburg has addressed the reports that Microsoft is unhappy with Hi-Fi Rush’s sales, stating that it “was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release.”
Xboxreportedly isn’t very happy withHi-Fi Rush’s sales numbers, with one insider claiming that it “didn’t make the money that it needed to make”.
Just a few months ago, Xbox kicked this year off right by surprising everyone with ashadowdrop of the kind of colourful single-player game that everyone says they want more of - Hi-Fi Rush. Despite the massive buzz, incredibly positive reviews, confirmation of over two million players, and a strong community already building around it, that apparently wasn’t enough, as Xbox seemingly isn’t impressed with Hi-Fi Rush’s sales.
Related:Hi-Fi Rush Needs To Be More Than An Exception For Xbox Exclusives
That’s according to gaming insider and GamesBeat reporter Jeff Grubb, who spoke about the matter on the most recent episode of his podcast, Game Mess Decides. At one point, co-host Mike Minotti mentions Hi-Fi Rush being a big win for Xbox and wonders why it wasn’t made a big deal, to which Grubb replies that he’s heard that it simply didn’t sell enough.
Grubb said, “Based on what I heard, it straight up didn’t make the money it needed to make. It got good reviews, the buzz was good, so where do you put the blame for something like that? Is it the price? Was it the shadow drop? Could it have sold more? Is it Game Pass? This is something I’d love to ask Xbox about.”
If true, this does raise some interesting questions about what it takes for Xbox to consider something a success, and its expectations for games that it launches on Game Pass. As Grubb mentions, if a game is launched on Game Pass then a vast majority of people simply aren’t going to buy it, which is obviously going to impact sales. Xbox surely knows this and will account for it, but it seems that it can still end up being let down by sales numbers.
It also makes you wonder if the sudden shadowdrop, a move that got a lot of positive attention when it happened, was really the best thing for Hi-Fi Rush, or if it might have ended up negatively impacting the game considering it basically had no marketing and was suddenly dropped with no reviews to back it up.
Although this might seem like bad news for Hi-Fi Rush fans, it’s worth noting that Xbox likely doesn’t consider the game to be a failure overall, as it did get over two million players and great reviews, so it’s probably going to take the loss in sales for the boost in its image. Still, it probably means that a sequel is a very far-off possibility now.
Interestingly,according to Eurogamer, Tango Gameworks described Hi-Fi Rush as “one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years” in a recent company email. Again, this doesn’t equate to high sales, but it does suggest at least that Xbox is happy with how the game has done overall.
