Rocket League celebrates 30 million players

Psyonix's hit car-football game Rocket League has reached a new milestone, having hit 30 million players worldwide. While the figure doesn't speak translate into sales, it still speaks of the enormous popularity of the game almost two years on from its initial release.

Rocket League's official Twitter account celebrated the news on Twitter, saying: "To all 30 million of our players around the world, thank you!"

The game's sustained success can be attributed to its launch as a free game on PlayStation Plus in July 2015. That brought in millions of players straight off the bat and helped the game become a summertime phenomenon.

Even after the game's month-long status as a freebie on PS4, players kept buying the game on console and PC. An Xbox One version followed in February 2016, itself helped by cross-platform play between the Microsoft console and PC.

By June 2016 Rocket League had topped five million sales and 15 million players, so it's clear the game's success hasn't slowed down. In March 2017, Psyonix revealed the game had sold 10.5 million copies.

Those 30 million players include individual PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live accounts that have been used to play the game since its launch, which is why it's so much higher than the number of units sold.

The game's popularity as a competitive esports title has also helped considerably, as has the developer's continuing support of the game with free arenas and modes, as well as paid DLC, including the car belonged by Vin Diesel's character in the the Fast and Furious franchise.

As Rocket League continues to build as a platform, a sequel seems unlikely.

"Why would we want to take this huge community that we've already built, that's still growing, and say, 'What you're playing now is going to be irrelevant in 12 months, but we want you to stop what you're doing, giving us money all over again, and move over to this other game,'" explained Psyonix VP Jeremy Dunham in March. "That's not the right way to do things. I think that era of games has passed."

For all the latest video game news follow us on Twitter @IBTGamesUK.