Dragon Age: The Veilguard Faces a Challenging Task to Rival Inquisition’s Launch Sales, Analyst Reports

Dragon Age: The Veilguard hit the scene on October 31st, and even though it’s early days, we’ve got a sneak peek at its initial performance in the market. It made a respectable debut by landing at No.6 on Circana’s list of top-selling games in the US for the entire month, trailing right behind Metaphor: ReFantazio. However, just relying on its position on this chart doesn’t paint the full picture.

To dig deeper into how Veilguard is actually doing, we spoke with Mat Piscatella from Circana. He provided some insights, highlighting that while it might seem like Dragon Age is getting outpaced by a slew of other October releases, it’s crucial to note the timing. Dragon Age launched on the very last day of October, and the chart data extends only until November 2nd. This essentially means Dragon Age had just a three-day window of sales considered, whereas many other titles enjoyed far longer periods.

Piscatella also shed light on another important detail: EA doesn’t share Steam sales data for these charts. As a result, while other games, including Metaphor, have their Steam sales counted, Dragon Age’s numbers were limited to just PlayStation and Xbox.

“If we had the PC sales for Dragon Age: The Veilguard included, it could have ranked higher, possibly up to the 3rd spot,” Piscatella explained. “But unfortunately, whether digital sales are considered in these charts is up to the publisher.”

Curious about how Veilguard’s launch stacks up against previous Dragon Age games, we asked if there’s any comparative data. Circana’s records only stretch back to 2018, so there’s no direct comparison available. However, Piscatella did offer some insights on its launch performance:

“Looking at the initial days of sales and engagement data from Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, it’s a good start—not extraordinary, but promising,” he noted. “Dragon Age: The Veilguard hasn’t yet reached the launch week figures seen by Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth or Dragon’s Dogma II. And matching Inquisition’s lifetime sales will definitely be a challenge. But it’s early days, and there’s a lot of the journey still to unfold. November’s data will provide a clearer picture.”

While we lack specific sales numbers for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Square Enix admitted that it fell short of their expectations. On the flip side, Capcom celebrated Dragon’s Dogma 2 as a success, having sold over 2.5 million copies by April. For some added perspective, sales data from the UK, courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz, shows Dragon Age: The Veilguard debuted at No.7. However, its first-week sales were over 18% lower than Dragon’s Dogma 2 and almost 21% below Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.

In our review, we awarded The Veilguard a solid 9/10, praising it for “breathing new life into the series with engaging action combat, an exceptional set of companions, and compelling character narratives.” Reactions have been mixed, even among our own team. If you haven’t experienced it yet, now might be the time as it’s part of the Black Friday discount lineup.

Rebekah Valentine, a senior reporter at IGN, regularly shares updates on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have an inside scoop? Reach out at [email protected].