I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liar (2021) launched in late August across all major VR headsets, bringing fans of the original game a fresh taste of spy-flavored puzzles and adventure. Now developers Schell Games say it’s done so well that the sequel has broken past the $1 million revenue milestone only a few days after launch.
I Expect You to Die 2 launched simultaneously on all major VR platforms on August 24th, including Oculus Quest, Oculus PC, SteamVR, and PSVR. At $25 a pop, that would mean it sold 40,000 units over the course of “less than a week,” the studio says.
However you slice it, that means the sequel is performing very well. To put it in perspective, the first I Expect You to Die (2016) reached the $1 million revenue mark a few months after its initial launch in late 2016, first landing on PSVR and Oculus Rift, and then later coming to Steam.
Momentum appears to have sped up as Oculus Quest entered the scene in mid-2019. The original—an official launch title on Quest—generated $2 million in revenue on Quest alone in its first year.
The sequel’s success is well-deserved. When we went in for our full review, we noted that, although it felt like a direct extension of the original, it ultimately offered up another substantial slice of clever and intuitive puzzles wrapped around high quality, well, high quality everything. Set pieces, voice acting, musical numbers—the game seemed to hit every mark. Check out our full review to find out why we gave it an [8.5/10].
“We have been blown away by the support of gamers and VR enthusiasts from all over the world,” said Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games. “We’ve received countless heart-warming messages from our players sharing their stories with the game, and we are so grateful to our existing fans and new agents who used their creativity and cunning to put a stop to Zoraxis’ nefarious schemes. This is an important milestone, not just for us and our business, but for the ever-growing VR market. VR-first franchises like I Expect You To Die can succeed and studios should pay attention to where this market is going.”
I Expect You To Die 2 is available on Steam (Vive, Rift, Index), the Oculus Store (Rift, Quest), and the PlayStation Store (PSVR).