Persona 5 Tactica fails to grab Xbox players despite Game Pass debut

Atlus launched Persona 5 Tactica on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on November 17, marking the fourth time a Persona game has launched into Xbox Game Pass on day one. Unfortunately, however, Tactica hasn’t performed quite as well as the other games from the franchise, having only reached as high as 50th in our TrueAchievements Gameplay Chart in its first week. This week, things are looking even worse, as Persona 5 Tactica has already dropped to 62nd, but how has it fared with the rest of the series?

Much like we did with the Yakuza and Like a Dragon stats, we’ve taken a look at the launch week history for the Persona series to see what we could dig up, and it’s not looking good for Tactica. According to the data, Persona 5 Royal, which launched into Xbox Game Pass in October 2022, saw more than 31,600 TrueAchievements members unlock an achievement during its first week on Xbox. That’s followed by Persona 3 Portable in January 2023 with 8,250, Persona 5 Tactica with 6,350, and finally Persona 4 Golden with 5,290.

While Persona 5 Royal takes the crown with the most players jumping in during its first week, it’s actually Persona 3 Portable that leads the pack with day one players, racking up 3,800 TrueAchievements players on its first day. The other three Persona games never managed to surpass the 2,000-player mark on their first day on Xbox. You likely have noticed that we haven’t included Persona 4: Arena and Persona 4: Arena Ultimax in these statistics, and that’s because they were Xbox 360 titles without the support of Xbox Game Pass. Just to put things into perspective, our data shows that 2012’s Persona 4: Arena saw 1,840 TrueAchievements members unlock an achievement during its first week on Xbox 360, while Persona 4: Arena Ultimax only managed 564. It’s worth noting, however, that TrueAchievements was still young when both of the Xbox 360 games launched, and we didn’t have the huge member count we enjoy today.

Now, returning to the modern Persona games, while we think Persona 5 Royal is one of the best Xbox RPG games, its popularity during its first week on Xbox could be exacerbated by two factors. First off, Persona 5 Royal was the first Persona game to launch on Xbox since the Xbox 360 days. Mix that with the ease of access offered by Xbox Game Pass, and it’s easy to see why many players would have dived in for some turn-based RPG fun. Another potential factor could be down to the Persona 5 Royal Achievement Challenge we ran with Atlus in the US, which tasked players with unlocking the Spirit of Rebellion achievement for obtaining Arsène. Prizes for the challenge included Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions and Xbox Design Lab vouchers, so there were some lucrative incentives on offer for participating.

As for Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden, both mainline titles launched on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Xbox Game Pass, and PC Game Pass on the same day. Naturally, more players would have started unlocking Persona 3 Portable achievements during the first week to play both titles in sequence, which would explain why Persona 4 Golden achievements were only unlocked by 500 TrueAchievements players during its first seven days. As a spin-off game, it’s understandable that Persona 5 Tactica achievements weren’t unlocked by as many players as the mainline entries, but its 1,717 day one TrueAchievements users count is only just behind the 1,835 players who unlocked Persona 5 Royal achievements on the first day.

Looking forward, Atlus is set to launch Persona 3 Reload on February 2, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and much like its predecessors, Reload will join Xbox Game Pass on day one as well. We’ll look forward to seeing how it stacks up with the other games after its first week in the service.

For now, though, if you fancy jumping in for some Persona fun, all four games mentioned in this article are available via the Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass libraries. Alternatively, why not check out some of the best games on Game Pass?