Star Wars: Outlaws released last week, the more premium options on the 27th of August, and the standard on the 30th. Following the launch of the title, it’s being reported that Ubisoft, the publisher of Outlaws, has taken a hit, with the company’s share price falling 12.6%, a near ten year low.
Reuters spoke with J.P. Morgan analyst, Daniel Kerven, who shared that Star Wars: Outlaws had “struggled to reach” the projections made by analysts. The analyst tweaked their sales expectations for the title by two million copies, now projecting that Star Wars: Outlaws will reach around 5.5 million copies sold by the end of the current fiscal year, March 2025.
Outlaws launched last week to mostly positive reviews, the title current has a 76 on Metacritic, though its user score is a much lower 4.9 out of 10. Outlaws had a rocky launch, releasing with a fair few unfortunate bugs. Ubisoft last week released a bug-busting patch alongside an email to some PlayStation 5 users to start a new save file, to play from scratch, as previous save files would likely encounter progression blockers. This occurred one day after the launch of the Ultimate and Gold editions of the video game, the premium versions of the game that allowed players to get their hands on the title days before the release of the standard edition. The Ultimate edition cost £114.99 and the Gold edition cost £94.99.
It’s also being reported that Star Wars: Outlaws physical sales in the United Kingdom were 55% lower than that of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor which released last year. Of course, more gamers are going the digital route every year and not picking up physical copies, but 55% is still considered a big drop.
Unfortunately I think the Star Wars: Outlaws further epitomises where the Star Wars franchise is at the moment. General interest in the franchise is down and is seemingly reflected in the latest two Star Wars releases – Outlaws and The Acolyte. Both ridiculously were forced into online culture wars with Outlaws and The Acolyte being deemed as ‘woke’ and the former pitted against the surprise hit video game of the year, Black Myth: Wokong, which sold over 10 million copies in a handful of days. The Acolyte was cancelled after just one season with the star of the series, Amandla Stenberg, pointing to “a rampage of hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language” as a reason for the cancellation of the series.
The Acolyte was ultimately cancelled due to low viewership. The series was the first ever live-action Star Wars series to drop out of the Nielsen Top 10 Originals Streaming Chart and fell out of the chart not just for one week, but for four – covering the releases of episodes four, five, six and seven before returning to the chart with the series finale, episode eight, and once again falling out of the chart the following week.
In recent years the only two series that have been major viewership successes for Star Wars has been The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, Kenobi received a divisive response online, as did the third season of The Mandalorian. In the case of The Mandalorian, the third season was also the lowest rated critically with an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 6.9/10 and an audience score of 50%. The first season of The Mandalorian boasted a 93% critics rating with an average score of 8.3/10 and an audience score of 92% and the second season also shared a 93% critics rating, but with a higher average score of 9/10 and an audience score of 91%.
The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka had okay viewership according to Nielsen data, with both shows getting much needed viewership boosts when well known, fan-favourite characters made appearances in the two series – Luke Skywalker, Din Djarin and Anakin Skywalker. Andor faced low viewership, seemingly not as low as The Acolyte, but became a critical darling.
It’s not nice to hear about our beloved franchise in a galaxy far, far away, but it’s becoming more apparent that general interest in Star Wars has been dwindling in recent times and that could be for a multitude of reasons. However, we’re about to enter a quieter time for the franchise with only three announced live-action series due to release over the next two years – Skeleton Crew this December, Andor season two next year and Ahsoka season two expected in 2026. I’m personally hoping that less Star Wars content on the market will boost excitement and desire for more Star Wars content come 2026 with the release of the first Star Wars movie since 2019 in the form of The Mandalorian and Grogu. The film has to be good to succeed also to get repeat viewings and maintain its legs during its theatrical run.
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