The Last of Us Part II sells 4 million copies in three days, setting new record

By Don Reisinger Published April 25, 2023

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II has set a new launch sales record with 4 million units sold in its first three days on store shelves.

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The Last of Us Part II’s record makes it the “fastest-selling first-party PlayStation 4 exclusive ever,” Sony senior vice president of PlayStation marketing Eric Lempel said in a blog post on Friday. Naughty Dog, which developed the game, is a wholly owned Sony development house.

“We are so immensely grateful to the millions of fans around the world that have played The Last of Us Part II and shared their experiences with us over the last week,” Naughty Dog vice president Neil Druckmann said in a statement. “We set out to tell a new kind of story, one that deals with difficult themes and would challenge you in unexpected ways. Hearing how the experience has resonated with so many of you and witnessing the type of thoughtful discussions it has sparked has been so incredible.”

The Last of Us Part II took the top spot from Marvel’s Spider-Man, which snagged 3.3 million unit sales during its first three days of availability in 2018.

The Last of Us Part II, which launched on the PlayStation 4 last Friday, was one of the most anticipated launches of the year, thanks to its wildly successful debut on the PlayStation 3 in 2013. The second release also earned rave reviews from critics, including Digital Trends Gaming Section Editor Lisa Marie Segarra. Segarra called the game “a dark masterpiece” and said it “will go down as a classic game that people talk about for years to come, not unlike the first iteration.” She gave the game five out of five stars.

Friday, Druckmann told the Kinda Funny Gamecast in an interview that Naughty Dog has “no plans” to release The Last of Us Part II DLC. Naughty Dog released a popular expansion to the game called The Last of Us: Left Behind in 2014. Druckmann did not, however, reference rumors that a multiplayer version of The Last of Us may be in the works for an eventual launch on the PlayStation 5.

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Don Reisinger is a freelance technology, video game, and entertainment journalist. He has been writing about the world of…

Gaming

Even HBO’s The Last of Us can’t fully master the video game adaptation

Pedro Pascal with his finger to his mouth telling someone to be quiet in a scene from The Last of Us on HBO Max.

There's a pretty good chance that your favorite video game will be made into a movie or TV show.

Thanks in no small part to efforts by PlayStation Productions and the success of movies like Sonic the Hedgehog and TV shows like Arcane, there will only be more adaptations of your favorite video games coming. We’ve come to a sort-of apex with The Last of Us on HBO, a prestige TV take on one of gaming's most celebrated titles. It has legitimate stars, a big budget, Chernobyl’s showrunner at the helm, and is raking in viewers. Only three episodes have aired at the time of this writing, but it’s already poised for success, both in terms of viewership and critical accolades.

Entertainment

The Last of Us TV show will return for Season 2 at HBO

Ellie stares at Joel and Tess in the The Last of Us TV show.

HBO has confirmed that the critically acclaimed The Last of Us TV show will return for a second season.
This announcement comes from a tweet posted after only two of the series' episodes have aired. That said, the show garnered critical acclaim, broke some HBO viewership records, and doesn't yet appear to incorporate many plot elements from The Last of Us Part II, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that the series is continuing. According to the tweet, the second season of the show will air on HBO Max (or whatever that service ends up becoming later this year).
https://twitter.com/TheLastofUsHBO/status/1619017515581018112
No release window, story, or casting announcements were made in relation to The Last of Us Season 2, although that isn't very surprising as the show's first season is still airing. That said, it seems extremely likely that it would follow the plot of The Last of Us Part II, which sees Ellie go on a quest for revenge after an extremely traumatic event that we won't spoil here. While the second game in this series proved to be much more divisive than the first, there's certainly no shortage of dramatic moments and intriguing plot developments for Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin to adapt to television in another season. The Last of Us is currently airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max every Sunday night. Digital Trends gave the series a four-star review, with Alex Welch writing that The Last of Us is a "lovingly made, often emotionally riveting adaptation of what is one of the most treasured titles in video game history."

Gaming

New art for The Last of Us multiplayer spinoff teases its seaside setting

The second piece of The Last of Us multiplayer concept art shows two players walking toward a beached yacht.

Naughty Dog reaffirmed that it will share more details about The Last of Us' multiplayer game this year and released new concept art for it. The image gives a better sense of its setting, with a massive boat serving as a key set piece.
The new image shows two players as they approach a giant beached yacht. Rusted vehicles, palm trees, and a flooded street surround them, suggesting that this is in some sort of seaside town. Earlier concept art for the game seemed to indicate a San Francisco setting, though it's unclear if the new image is from the same location.
While Naughty Dog hasn't commented on exactly what exactly this concept art is supposed to show, it seems like this is one of the maps where players will be able to fight the Infected and potentially other players. It also looks reminiscent of some of the final areas of The Last of Us Part II.
This reassurance of its development and concept art came as part of a blog post on Naughty Dog's website today meant to kick off the series' tenth anniversary. "With a team led by Vinit Agarwal, Joe Pettinati, and Anthony Newman, the project is shaping up to be a fresh, new experience from our studio, but one rooted in Naughty Dog’s passion for delivering incredible stories, characters, and gameplay," Neil Druckmann writes in the blog post.
This multiplayer game has been a long time coming, as it was originally meant to release alongside The Last of Us Part II but was separated to become a standalone release. We haven't heard that much about it since then, only getting some concept art at Summer Game Fest 2022. As this new concept art looks like it's from a very different location than the previous art, it seems like this multiplayer game could have multiple maps.
While it still doesn't have a release window, we should hear more about it by the end of 2023.