After 8 years in development hell, Dead Island 2 sells 1 million copies in its first weekend

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The long-troubled sequel has had a pretty darn good launch

Dead Island 2
(Image credit: Deep Silver)

Dead Island 2 has finally been released from nearly a decade in development hell – eight or nine years depending on when you start counting – and launched to respectable acclaim and strong sales. According to its official Twitter, it sold a million copies in its first four days.

"HELL-A welcomed over a million Slayers during its launch weekend," a recent tweet reads. "That's mind-blowing. Thank you!" The tweet was posted mid-afternoon on Monday, April 24, three-and-a-half days after the game's Friday, April 21 release date. A million copies is a pretty solid haul for about 84 hours. 

These aren't the biggest launch sales of the year – last I checked, Hogwarts Legacy still wears that crown with 12 million copies in two weeks – but the fact that Dead Island 2 was released at all, let alone in a genuinely likable state, is a miracle. Shipping a game is hard enough in ideal circumstances, so games with development cycles this long and troubled rarely stick the landing. It's a nice little comeback story for a game that's been the butt of countless jokes over the last few years. 

We were quite taken with the zombie-slashing sequel ourselves, especially the unbelievably detailed gore system that turns every zombie kill into a wonderfully grotesque spectacle. As we said in our Dead Island 2 review: "For the most part though this is a robustly solid and polished game that, while it might never drop anything groundbreaking, maintains a consistently enjoyable flow of nice touches and ideas." 

Despite its simplicity, Dead Island 2 did squeeze in a cool moment which, for good reason, is rarely seen in games. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.