Saints Row’s reboot was likely the lowest selling in franchise history

The 2022 Saints Row reboot is likely the lowest selling entry in franchise history.

According to a Linkedin post from former Volition community and social media manager Tyrin Stevenson,  the game sold 1.7 million units.

If true, it would mean the reboot has sold less than every mainline entry in the franchise. Saints Row The Third is the highest selling entry at over 5.5 million copies, with Saints Row 2 managing 3.4 million. The original game in the series, which was released only on Xbox 360, sold over 2 million copies.

While current sales figures for Saints Row 4 aren’t available, the game sold over 1 million copies in its opening week in 2013, meaning that it’s very likely it exceeded the 1.7 million sales of Saints Row in its lifespan.

Saints Row received mixed reviews at launch, with VGC’s Saints Row review labelling the game a “buggy, dull mess”. It currently has scores of 61-65 on the review aggregation site Metacritic.

Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors previously said he was personally disappointed by the reception to Saints Row, when he spoke during Embracer’s AGM  in September 2022.

“Personally, I had hoped for a greater reception to the game,” he said at the time. “It’s been very polarising. There are a lot of things that could be said in detail around it, but I’m with one hand happy to see lots of gamers and fans happy, and at the same time I’m a bit sad to also see fans not happy, so it’s difficult.

Not long after this, Embracer Group closed Volition.

Volition was originally formed 30 years ago, as Parallax Software Corporation, before changing its name to Volition in 1996.