It’s a new contender for Game of the Year and has quickly become a huge hit for Atlus. That would be Metaphor: ReFantazio, the new RPG from Atlus that has now set a record for the studio’s most sales in the shortest amount of time.

That’s one million copies sold on its first day, beating all previous Persona games, Atlus’ hugely popular and beloved series. Previously, the old record was that Persona 3 sold a million in five days. One key difference here, however, is a global release with many regions launching at the same time, which no doubt contributed to this early total.

An added factor here was a lengthy demo that Atlus released for Metaphor, giving players a taste of the game that appealed to many and made them buy it at launch. I’ve seen this credited by many people who picked up the game right away, when otherwise they might have skipped or at least waited for a sale.

As for the GOTY statement: Metaphor: ReFantazio just fell An One point since launch, it’s down 94 to 93, meaning it’s no longer tied with Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree or Astro Bot at 94. Not that it matters, of course. The three-way race between (non-expansion) games will likely still be Astro Bot, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and now Metaphor. And with a million sales on its first day, it looks like it will get wide enough play that industry voters can get a fair shot at it.

This is a great achievement for Atlus, who regularly release fantastic Persona games, but now Metaphor has had a record-breaking wave for the studio and achieved new fame. Whether it’s GOTY or ultimately just a finalist shouldn’t matter, and I’d expect this could also set longer-term sales records for Atlus if positive word of mouth about the game continues. The game debuted with “very positive” review scores on Steam and 56,000 concurrent players and is rising in the launch window here, with even more heading into the weekend.

It’s great to see Atlus have a hit like this in what’s proving to be a busy year of high-quality releases. Persona games almost always stand out, but it’s cool to see them doing so here with Metaphor: ReFantazio.

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