While No Man's Sky is rocketing players off into space, the game has also rocketed developer Hello Games into the record books. Not only is the game now at the top of the UK charts, but it has also become the second-biggest PS4 debut in history for Sony.
What makes this achievement so noteworthy is that, as opposed to other titles that among which it now resides, No Man's Sky was created by an indie developer.
News of No Man's Sky's foray into PlayStation's history books comes from sales monitor Chart-Track. According to the site, the game's debut was second only to Naughty Dog's Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. The exact numbers weren't disclosed, so it's possible that No Man's Sky actually surpassed Uncharted 4 in sales during the week ending on Aug. 15, as digital downloads weren't factored into the equation.
As far as the ranking of new IP launches on PlayStation platforms go, No Man's Sky is the fifth-most successful. Coming up ahead of Hello Games' space exploration and survival title are Destiny and Watch Dogs on the PS4, The Getaway on the PS2 and The Last of Us on the PS3.
Meanwhile, No Man's Sky stands firmly rooted as the top performer in the UK last week, knocking Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V off its perch. Other games similarly knocked from their positions are Overwatch, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Uncharted 4, which now stand at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.
Here is a list of the top 10 (note that this list doesn't include digital sales data, and is thus not representative of all UK game sales):
1. No Man's Sky
2. Grand Theft Auto V
3. Overwatch
4. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens
5. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
6. Rocket League
7. FIFA 16
8. Doom
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
10. Minecraft: Xbox Edition
The PlayStation 4 wasn't the only place where No Man's Sky shined, however. It also enjoyed a successful debut on the PC, becoming the biggest game release on Steam in 2016 so far. As of this writing, according to data from Steam Charts, it has 59,915 active players — losing out to the three big dogs on Steam: DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2. Amusingly enough, it even managed to surpass the number of peak players that Team Fortress 2 had in the past 30 days, with a total of 212,321 compared with the latter's 69,157, despite being out for only three days.
Based on these numbers, it looks like No Man's Sky will only increase in popularity from here on out. The game hasn't had too many hiccups on the PS4, and despite a troubled launch on Aug. 12, it still managed to rank fourth among Steam games so far this month. Of course, Hello Games is already on top of that and has an experimental branch that could be the cure for what ailed many annoyed PC players.
