Sonic Frontiers launched to “mixed or average reviews” from critics but in spite of this, the game is doing extremely well on Steam. The open-world platformer has been met with very positive reviews from players on the PC platform with a 91% approval rating. Sonic Frontiers also smashed the record for most concurrent players on Steam less than a week after the game launched. The previous record holder for the most concurrent players for a Sonic game was Sonic Mania which was released in 2017. Sonic Frontiers peaked at 19,181 concurrent players according to SteamDB. Sonic Mania’s previous record was set at 11,937 five years ago. Fans and critics initially doubted the new open-world setting for the new Sonic game, as the series’ best outings come in a more traditional sidescrolling 2D platform game. But, with Sonic Frontiers, the franchise went open world and players are loving it. The concurrent player record is something worth celebrating back at Sega. Along with its Metacritic score, the tide seems to be turning on Sega’s flagship series. The game isn’t as polished as players would’ve liked, but by reinventing the series into an open-world game, the developers may have unlocked a formula for its future. Sonic Frontiers’ director Morio Kishimoto recently acknowledged that the game still has “a long way to go” as the current main title of the franchise. “I’m sorry I couldn’t contact you because I’ve been busy since the release date. I’m relieved that the release date has arrived and that it seems to have reached everyone safely. We are checking the opinions of the critics and everyone. As you pointed out, we still have a long way to go, and we take this seriously as a global playtest,” Kishimoto said. As one of the most hype Sonic games in recent memory, it’s nice seeing Sonic Frontiers is living up to its billing. This may be the start of a new era for Sonic games in an age where open-world titles and non-linear quest lines are the norm. Speaking of Sonic, the blue blur set a new U.S box office record for video game franchises with Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The threequel will premiere in two years on December 20, 2024.
