Above: 'Rocket League' screenshot courtesy of PsyonixEven though it came out in 2015, and was released onto the PlayStation 4 for "free" through the subscription-based PlayStation Plus program, Psyonix's jet-propelled soccer not-a-sim-at-all Rocket League has been confirmed as 2016's biggest-selling PS4 game on PlayStation Network for both the UK and US, beating out games like Battlefield 1, Minecraft, and FIFA 17.Which is a little surprising, no? Obviously digital sales differ massively from psychical sales, and the asking price for Rocket League is somewhat below the premium cost of a triple-A release, but still: that's an independently made multiplayer game at number one, a game untouched by a major publisher, ahead of FIFA 17, Battlefield 1, Uncharted 4 and Destiny. Not too shabby for a game that was the most-downloaded of all time on PS Plus when it came out in July 2015, doing five million in a month, and only received a proper PS4 retail release in June 2016.In total, Rocket League now has over 25 million users, who've logged over a billion matches, with an average of just over a million people turning it on every day. I'm not quite one of them, only semi-regularly logging on for some standard-issue three-on-three casual play. But I still can't say no to it, when I see it there, on the edge of my PS4 dashboard. C'mon, Mike. Two or three matches, what's the worst that can happen?Usually, the worst is that instead of going to bed at 11PM, I stumble up the stairs three hours later than planned. And I'm not even that competitive. But Rocket League is one of those games where I find myself unable to put it down unless I've had a good match—unless I've bagged an MVP award, or at least netted a few times in a win. Just this morning, I took it out for a spin again: three matches, six goals, two MVPs. I'll take that as a sign of a good day to come.And while it was 9am in the UK, and most people were getting into their schools and offices, there were still well over 36,000 people online, ready to kick off. At its peak, Rocket League has hosted 220,000 concurrent users. Which is a figure that makes my shoulders ache, but it's indicative of just how easily this game hooks its players and keeps them coming back. It's so effortless to get into, but super tough to truly master; but that gradient of difficulty never feels insurmountable, and you'll regularly get matched with players who you can both take to the cleaners and learn a few tricks from. Playing more just makes you better, slowly and surely.As well as its sales success on PSN, Rocket League was also a "platinum" seller on Steam for 2016, putting it amongst the top-12 titles of the year beside another 2015 release, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Both games have benefitted from some strong DLC in 2016, but Rocket League's is purely cosmetic—I've certainly never reached for my wallet at any point this past year and a half.All the same, that cosmetic DLC has done wonders for Psyonix's revenues: As of summer 2016, the game had made upwards of $110 million, against production costs of just $2 million. An abundance of new pitches, released for free, have kept matches varied (even if Neo-Tokyo can do one); and the game's ascent to an eSport of note—check out our piece on the first Rocket League "world cup"—is no doubt attracting newcomers.And if all of this sounds like a sales pitch, sorry, but I do really love Rocket League—and I'm far from alone in the UK VICE office. Its success is heart-warming, and that such an elementary on-paper premise can become this phenomenon of a multiplayer experience, well, it must give all indie developers hope, surely. Psyonix missed much of an audience at all with their (pretty much the same) game before Rocket League, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars—but how they've taken their second chance.In short: *clapping hands emoji*
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