How Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’s record-breaking sales show importance of perfect launch window

The hopes for Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will have been high, given the gap to the previous game in the series. It was hotly anticipated by both Star Wars and Lego fans as it had been a long time since a new Star Wars-themed Lego game was released.

As per fresh reports, the game has been a massive commercial success, leading to it breaking records of all previous titles in the franchise. This commercial success hands out an important lesson: games should be good quality, but they should also be spaced out properly when selecting release dates.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has dramatically benefited from quality execution and the amount of ovation from the fans. However, its commercial success also depends on when the game was released.

The first quarter of 2022 was a cramped space, and a few titles could have followed Warner Bros.' tactics and benefited from it.

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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's commercial success based on perfect release date

On April 21, Warner Bros. declared the sales numbers of its latest Lego game. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has sold more than 3.2 million units in two weeks of its release.

The numbers have surpassed all previous records across all consoles to make this title a record seller. The results have been achieved due to the time when the game was released.

It shouldn't be thought that the release date is the only reason for the game to sell so much. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has been loved immensely by fans and critics alike.

There are tons of things to do in the game with over a hundred playable characters. It has story episodes from all the major movies that offer a fantastic chance for novices to play the game. More content expansions are coming, and all the positive elements have been a significant reason for such sky-high sales numbers.

However, the developers corrected another crucial aspect: the day of the game's release. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was released on April 5, allowing it to stay away from the competition with any other video game.

The only other major AAA release during that time is MLB The Show 22, which has a rather niche audience.

Making a top-notch video game is a fundamental thing for developers to do. A title can never do well without good content and, in turn, never sell well. However, competition between video games does lead to a shortening of sales.

A recent example is the case of Horizon Forbidden West, one of the best releases of the year. However, its release overlapped with Elden Ring, in the running to win Game of the Year.

As soon as Elden Ring was released, a decline in sales of Horizon Forbidden West was observed in the UK. It should be noted that there are no direct comparisons between the sales number of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Horizon Forbidden West.

But the latter's decline in sales in the UK one week after its release has no other perceivable explanation aside from Elden Ring's release.

Hence, developers need to space out the release of their games, especially if their offering is for the general mass. After all, the time and resources of every gamer are limited, and very few have the window to buy or play two great releases simultaneously.

This situation never arose for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Its release was reasonably spaced with that of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, and the former will enjoy a dry run before the next big release of the year.

It will be interesting to see the final sales numbers for the game. For the time being, it has been a critical and commercial success, something every developer and publisher dreams of in the gaming industry.