Summary
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylhas turned a profit, a senior GSC Game World official has confirmed. This crucial sales milestone was hit mere weeks followingSTALKER 2’s release.
The latest entry in GSC’s immersive sim series launched on November 20. Two days later,STALKER 2had already sold one million copies, with the Ukrainian developer confirming as much in a social media post.
Two days ahead of the game’s first-month anniversary,STALKER 2is already in the green, GSC owner Maxim Krippa toldForbes Ukraine. While he didn’t provide an updated sales figure for the game, he confirmed that the project itself had a budget in the “tens of millions of dollars.” Publicly available LinkedIn data suggests that GSC has approximately 400 employees as of late 2024. Naively assuming this headcount was consistent since 2018—whenSTALKER 2restarted development—and using Glassdoor’s estimate of the average Ukrainian game dev salary being $36,000 gross per year, it’s plausible that the game’s budget was north of $80 million.
STALKER 2 May Have Already Sold Around 2 Million Copies
Taking the 30% storefront cut into account, GSC earns roughly $42 from each copy of theSTALKER 2Standard Edition, which is priced at $59.99. Assuming an $80 million budget, the company would have needed to sell around 1.9 million copies to break even. However, even if this budget estimate is accurate, the studio likely had a slightly lower break-even target, as some sales would undoubtedly include the higher-tier Deluxe and Ultimate Editions, priced at $79.99 and $109.99, respectively. Ditto for the fact that the game is also available on the Epic Games Store, which takes a lower, 12% sales cut, but presumably accounted for fewer of its sales.
The Future of STALKER Is Looking Bright
Nevertheless, with Krippa now confirming that the project is already in the green, it’s plausible thatSTALKER 2sold in the ballpark of two million copies as of December 18. Its strong commercial momentum is great news for fans of the series, as it increases the likelihood of another game being greenlit in the future.
GSC turning a profit in less than a month is all the more impressive in light of the fact thatSTALKER 2only launched on the Xbox Series X/S and PC. A potential PlayStation port would be all but guaranteed to boost its lifetime sales tally. And while a PS5 version of the game hasn’t been officially confirmed, a court filing that emerged in the Epic v Apple case in mid-2021 revealed that Microsoft only secured a three-month exclusivity period forSTALKER 2. It’s unclear if anything has changed since then and if GSC is already actively working on a PS5 version of the game.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
WHERE TO PLAY
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a sequel to the award-winning game franchise developed by GSC Game World. Experience one-of-a-kind gameplay, featuring the elements of a first-person shooter, immersive sim, and horror. The Chornobyl Exclusion Zone is a unique, dangerous and ever-changing environment. It promises a lot — the artifacts of unbelievable value can be yours if you dare to claim them. The price you may pay, on the other hand, is no less than your own life. One of the biggest open-worlds to date, filled with radiation, mutants and anomalies, is yours to explore. All the choices across the way not only define your own epic story, but influence the future itself. Be mindful about what you see, do and plan, as you will have to find your way through the Zone or be forever lost to it.
