The exact sales data for King's Quest games is not clear, nor necessarily accurately given. Most details come from estimations by Sierra themselves, or within game magazines. Most of the ones from sources outside of Sierra do not include internal data such as direct or internet sales of games. This article attempts to collect known claims for each game in the series, and show a comparison over the course of the series.
Background[]
Throughout the life of Sierra, Ken Williams and others admitted that pc gaming and especially adventure frames was a niche market and couldn't compete against console video games like Nintendo. Later on Sierra tried to diversify into the console market although due to various technical hurdles they could not port over sci games like King's Quest V. See King's Quest V (NES) and King's Quest V Sega CD. Ken Williams stated he had an obligation to his stockholders to pursue a profit this led to choices like diversifying and even moving away from adventure games to what had mass appeal. He also admitted that he sold the company because of his obligation to make his stock holders to grow profit.[1]
Roberta even admitted statistically speaking with adventure games only 13% of people ever completed the games. How that affected future sales is not clear. But might have been an influence on whether customers would come back to buy sequels or not.
Back when I got started, which sounds like ancient history, back then the demographics of people who were into computer games, was totally different, in my opinion, than they are today. Back then, computers were more expensive, which made them more exclusive to people who were maybe at a certain income level, or education level. So the people that played computer games 15 years ago were that type of person. They probably didn't watch television as much, and the instant gratification era hadn't quite grown the way it has lately. I think in the last 5 or 6 years, the demographics have really changed, now this is my opinion, because computers are less expensive so more people can afford them. More “average” people now feel they should own one."-Roberta Williams
Retail sales of personal computer-based games grew only 28.5% between 1987 and 1988, according to Stamford, Conn.-based Software Industry Bulletin, the newsletter of the Digital Information Group. Retail sales of video games such as those used for the Nintendo Entertainment System, on the other hand, grew 100% between 1987 and 1988, partially due to a strong Christmas. To PC games publishers, the disparity is alarming...."PCs will never have the penetration into homes that video games do," says Davis. Nintendo sets, which sell for $99.95 with a game pack, are far cheaper and easier to use.
Sales Information[]
King's Quest was apparently the only series Sierra ever offered any form of sales figures for. Largely because it was seen as their flagship series, and the ones that pushed technology for every other series Sierra put out.[2] So quoting the series total sales figures almost always appeared in its marketing.
In 1988 Sierra mentioned that it had earned 8 SPA (Software Publishers Association) Gold Medals for games that sold 100,000 games. This included KQ3, Space Quest, Space Quest II, Thexder, Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry (the last two were likely KQ1 and KQ2). KQ4 would likely be the next but possibly on its way to earn the SPA Platinum Medal.
It's an interesting side fact that according to Sierra's known data at the time of development of KQ8, only 13% of people ever played through the games, and most people never replayed the games.[3]
King's Quest Original[]
According to the second release box (gold box, released before KQ4), a banner says that over 500,000 copies were sold. It is not specific if this number is referring to US sales, or world wide sales.
The back of the KQ1 gold box states: "Over one-half million king's quest sold... and goes on to say King's Quest is one of the most popular and commercially successful products in the history of computer entertainment software, and that the success of this game has launched a whole series based on the original King's Quest. King's Quest's players can continue their journeys with Romancing the Throne, and To Heir is Human, the second and third installment of the King's Quest series."
The back of the KQ2 gold box states that the original game 'became one of the industry's largest sellers. And that hundreds of thousands of people had played the game -- and loved it. This of course doesn't give sales figures, and Sierra's games were notoriously pirated as well.
Note: The gold box also says 'best selling series', and appears to be the combined number for King's Quest 1, 2 3, which were also rereleased in gold boxes. This is probably world-wide total sales see KQ5 section.
King's Quest 1 Remake[]
King's Quest remake, along with many of other Sierra's remakes were said to be critically panned, many viewed them as 'colorizing of black and white movies', and ruining the 'classics'... Due to the game's failure the planned remakes of KQ2 and 3 were canceled.
This version was sometimes put in the gold box version with a "New Version" sticker taped on it (before the release of a specific original box for it).
There are no totals advertised for this version of the game, but it can be figured out to be rather small when figuring between the number given at KQ5's release, and previous numbers given at the time of KQ4.
King's Quest 2[]
The gold box (second release) also includes the 'best selling series' and claims 500,000 sold. Most likely indicating that this might be a combined series sales including KQ1 and KQ3. This is probably world-wide total sales see KQ5 section.
King's Quest 3[]
The Spring 1989 Sierra Newsletter states that over 20,00 copies have been placed on order. The back of the KQ3 gold box (1987 second release) states that: "With over 50,000 units sold in its first six weeks of release (on just one computer), King's Quest III was the best received software sequel of the year. As the game moves to other computers, it is quickly becoming the best selling 3-D Animated Adventure Game in history." According to the Sierra Newsletter, King's Quest 3 was the best selling game in Sierra's nine year history, at the time.[4] Another article in the same issue states that it sold just over 100,000 copies, something that very few pc games did at the time, which earned it an SPA Gold Medal at the time (alongside Space Quest, and Thexder). This would seem to be in line with Roberta's claim that each game sold more than the previous game in the series. The issue also indicates it was on its way to getting its first platinum medal for sales of excess of 250,000 (possibly for KQ4?).
KQ3's gold box (second release) lists the game as being part of a 500,000 best selling series total. This is probably world-wide total sales see KQ5 section.
King's Quest 4[]
King's Quest IV sold 100,000 copies in its first two weeks.[5] Sierra News Magazine in 1988 mentioned that KQ4 was Sierra's top selling game, followed by Police Quest, King's Quest 3, Space Quest II, and Leisure Suit Larry. It hinted that their best selling game at the time was near earning an SPA Plantinum Medal at the time for earning in excess of 250,000. By November 2000, PC Data reported that King's Quest IVTemplate:'s sales in the United States alone had reached between 300,000 and 400,000 units. GameSpot's staff wrote that the game "marked a dramatic increase in the series' commercial success".[6]
The KQ4 gold box (original release) includes a banner claiming "Best Selling Series" and claims a total 800,000 copies sold for the entire series. This is probably worldwide total sales see KQ5 section.
King's Quest 5[]
According to Ken Williams King's Quest V had sold 300,000 copies by Spring 1992.[7] It originally sold 500,000 copies, making it the bestselling computer game for the next five years.[citation needed] King's Quest V sold 250,000 copies by February 1993,[8] and sales ultimately surpassed 500,000 copies.[9] By November 2000, PC Data reported that King's Quest VTemplate:'s sales in the United States alone had reached between 300,000 and 400,000 units.[6]
The back of the KQ5 blue box claims that the series is the best-selling series that sold "over a million copies worldwide". Again this is for the entire series, not a single game. Ken updated this in InterAction Spring 1992, to say the series had sold over 1,500,000.
King's Quest 6[]
130,000 copies went out during the first shipment.[10] According to Ken Williams, King's Quest VI sold around 400,000 copies in its first week of release[11] (out of a initial printed million copies) and topped sales charts for DOS games upon release in September 1992, still holding the number one position in December that year.[12] The CD-ROM version was the 5th best-selling CD-ROM game in November 1993.[13] By November 2000, PC Data reported that King's Quest VITemplate:'s sales in the United States alone had reached between 300,000 and 400,000 units.[6]
The front of the box in a 'ribbot' with a #1 wax stamp, states "Best-Selling Computer Game Series of All Time Over 1.5 Million King's Quest Sold", the back of the KQ6 PC boxes states that the series is best-selling having 'thrilled millions of people', but does not list any specific numbers. This again is talking about the total games sold in the series, not just KQ6. An ad for the Sierra Originals version also claims the series sold 1.5 million copies total.
King's Quest 6 had a budget of about one million dollars.[14]
King's Quest 7[]
By November 2000, PC Data reported that King's Quest VIITemplate:'s sales in the United States alone had reached between 300,000 and 400,000 units.[6]
The box for KQ7 includes a sticker that says that's from a best selling series that had sold 2.5 million games (again apparently intended to be combined sales of the series, including two previous collections).
The Sierra Originals box (and 1996 Spring Buyer's Guide) mentions 'King's Quest: Over 3 Million Sold. It's not specifically clear if this is for the entire series or just KQ7 alone. However, going by their previous totals it most likely is listing total worldwide sales (including individual games and collections),as this total series sales number increased to 3.8 million by 1996 in a later article (see below).
King's Quest 8[]
Roberta Williams claimed in 1999 that Mask of Eternity was among the best selling adventures of 1998, and outsold Grim Fandango 2-to-1, and that each game in the series outsold each previous game in the series[15][16] (but she also noted that she was not privy exact sales numbers at that time due to changes in management at the time.[17][18] However, according to GameSpot, the game's sales in the United States by November 2000 were "only a fraction" of the 300,000-400,000 units sold in the region by each of its immediate predecessors.[6] During the year 2001 alone, it sold 69,976 units in North America (this estimation did not include online or direct sales from Sierra).[19] In 2002, Louis Castle of Westwood Studios estimated total sales of 750,000 units for the game.[20] Grim Fandango sold roughly 500,000 copies, and if Roberta was correct in her estimate it sold roughly around 1,000,000 copies total at the most (including worldwide sales).
Some boxes for KQ8 include a sticker that claims "Best Selling Series", and that 'over 7 million copies sold'. This, like previous estimates, appears to include combined sales, including the sales of the King's Quest collections at the time (and worldwide sales).
Reboot series[]
Little is known about the sales figures, however on steam the game sold roughly 200,000 in the first year, 300,000 by the second. By August 2020, upwards around 500,000 games had been sold total. It is unclear if this is US sales or total world wide steam sales total.[21] If US sales are comparable to previous KQ US sales totals. It's worth noting most adventure games in current times sell less than 100,000 copies on Steam (and it's not known how well they do on competitors like GOG or Epic). The only exception being Telltale which sold roughly 500,000 copies on steam for each of its later games before it went out of business. [22]
There is no official indication of how well the series did as a whole (or what Activision would subjectively determine as 'successful' or not), but Steamspy (which only applies to Steam, and may not be wholly reliable) shows that it did comparably well compared to other adventure games in recent years selling almost 300,000 copies as of August, 2017 (most adventure games on steam sell for under 100,000, sometimes less than 30,000).
This puts its nearest competitor on steam Daedalic Entertainment's games, and some of the less successful Telltale games on steam such as Minecraft Adventures and Batman Season 1 (which range between 250,000 and 300,000). However it does not match the average numbers of most Tell Tales games in general (however many have been out longer, and have had a much longer time to sell copies over time), nor the sales numbers for Life is Strange (over 4 million).
This of course does not cover games sold on consoles PS3, PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One. The game is steam exclusive and has not yet been added to places like GOG (which may be a more popular platform for games of this style), however, Steam is still thought to be the more popular/well known platform.
For comparison to other Activision games Call of Duty Black Ops 3 has over 1.5 million owners, and Infinite Warfare has a little over 430,000 as of August, 2017. Very few adventure games other than some of Tell Tale games (Game of Thrones) and Life is Strange even make it past the 600,000 in around the same period of time (GOT has over 651,000 as of August 2017).
Series Sales Totals[]
Total sales figures estimates are given on several of the KQ boxes, both individual games and collections. These estimates are for total series sold worldwide, and not just for individual games sold (therefore they also include collections sales later on as well).
- KQ1-3 gold boxes (second release boxes) claim 500,000 copies of the series were sold total.
- An early unused KQ4 box mockup claims 500,000 copies of the series sold total.
- The Fall 1998 catalog claims 700,000 copies from the series sold.
- KQ4 gold box claims 800,000 of the series were sold total.
- An ad in Sierra Newsletter Winter 1988 states that the series sold 800,000 copies.
- An article in Sierra Newsletter Winter 1988 states that the series broke the one million copy barrier.
- The back of the original KQ5 box states "...best-selling series... that sold over a million copies worldwide".
- In InterAction Magazine Spring 1992, Ken Williams mentions that King's Quest series has sold over 1,500,000 (out of that King's Quest V had sold 300,000 so far by then, he projects that KQ6 will sell its first 300,000 half the time as KQ5, suggesting again the idea that each KQ sold 'double' the previous game in the same amount of time).
- The back of the KQ6 box states that the "...best-selling series...thrilled millions of people..." The ad for the Sierra Originals release specifies that the series sold 1.5 million total.
- The original KQ7 box claims that all previous games sold over 2.5 million games copies.
- KQ7 Sierra Originals box claims over 3 million copies of the series were sold total.
- According to Sierra On-Line, combined sales of the King's Quest series (seven titles plus anthology) surpassed 3.8 million units by the end of March 1996.[23] [24]
- The KQ Collector's Series box that came out several years after KQ7 (includes previews for KQ8) states: "Over 7 million sold".
- The KQ8 box sticker claims over 7 million copies of the series were sold total.
- Throwing in sales figures for KQ8 would have put the series upwards of 8 million sold (plus whatever number of collections sold with it in the bundle (see King's Quest Collections), or separately).
- It's not known how later collections such as 2006 collection, Steam or GOG collections add to the 'total numbers sold' over time.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ https://www.sierragamers.com/ken-williams/
- ↑ https://www.filfre.net/tag/kings-quest/
- ↑ File:Playdata.jpg
- ↑ Sierra Newsletter, Vol.1 Num. 4 Winter 1988, pg3
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ Roberta Williams Biography Template:Webarchive
- ↑ InterAction Winter 1992, pg 14
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- ↑ The Making of King's Quest VI video
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- ↑ https://www.filfre.net/tag/kings-quest/
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- ↑ https://steamspy.com/app/345390
- ↑ https://steamspy.com/app/345390
- ↑ Template:Cite report
- ↑ KING'S QUEST The player takes on a leading role in a world of brave knights, noble kings, wicked wizards and evil sorcerers. The Company has released seven titles plus an anthology and sold more than 3.8 million copies in this series.