I've said this before: unless you are getting sales numbers from a reputable third-party (and when it comes to video games in the US, there is basically one company that actually has the data, and that is Circana), or unless it is reported in official financial documents like quarterly/annual reports, YOU SIMPLY DON'T KNOW HOW MANY UNITS A GAME HAS SOLD.
Statista, Steam (or SteamDB), VG Chartz, etc., these are all notoriously unreliable. People who track the video game industry for a living do not use these sources because they are untrustworthy. Nobody is going to know how many copies this game has sold until the nerds have started crunching the numbers from the various points-of-sale. A good rule of thumb, however, is that if the company (in this case EA) doesn't announce the number after the first few weeks, it is because the number is not great. It could be "fine" or "enough" but no company is going lead with their chin and report a low purchase rate.
The only thing you can do is wait. And read the user reviews and have a chuckle.
I think it's going to do strong numbers out of the gate. Like I said, there will almost surely be some form of "strongest release ever" to go along with more "Bioware is back!" headlines. I'd also expect a "we're very pleased with the performance of Veilguard," that one is almost inevitable. We'll have our memes and glorious cringe clips, Biodrones will get to escape their miserable lives for a while, and EA will rake in the sheckels.
One outstanding question, of course - a lot of people are going to buy it in order to review bomb and refund. The only thing of any meaningful value to watch will be what EA says on calls with shareholders.
But I still think it's going to do fine and Bioware is going to do fine - they're still the shepard (hur) of some very valuable IPs. And with standards as low as the Veilguard audience, would you really want to lose access to those people? It's pretty clear the play, and I think it's a smart one - use this game to soak the diehards while roping in the kiddies, and once you've got that audience captured, start putting the squeeze on - mobile spinoffs, live service, gacha. They got spooked because they know they're on thin ice, plus the gullible younger kids have no idea what a Dragon Age is, but I'd put good money that's the long term plan.
These people will obviously buy anything. Why would you not want to wring every dime from them? You think these people won't throw giant gobs of cash at the most garish possible cosmetics? The more money this game makes the more certain a live service soaking is going to be in the works, and no one will laugh harder than me when EA starts raking in millions on 100 dollar Solas skins.
