Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Speeds Past 1 Million Sales in Under a Month as Steam Rating Stays Overwhelmingly Positive
Sega just launched a Persona 5 crossover—live in-game now.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is having a moment. One month in, it has real traction, a steady drip of free crossovers, and a player base that won’t stop queuing into races. Oh, and this week’s freebie is a big one: Joker from Persona 5 just pulled up to the starting line.
Where things stand
- Sales: Over 1 million copies sold in its first month.
- Player activity: 74.5 million races, 31.5 million Grands Prix, and 13 million ranked matches completed since launch.
- Platforms: No Nintendo Switch 2 version yet — that port is slated for later this year.
- New free character (this week): Persona 5’s Joker, plus a vehicle themed after Arsene.
- New music: Three Persona 5 tracks were added to the in-game jukebox alongside Joker.
- Next up: Yakuza’s Ichiban Kasuga joins in November; Sega says more free Sega characters are coming in the months ahead.
- Premium DLC: Minecraft content is already in; SpongeBob, Pac-Man, and Mega Man are confirmed for the coming months.
So... is it actually good?
Metacritic isn’t throwing a parade for CrossWorlds, but players sure are. The game has an 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating on Steam, and on the track it feels dialed-in — the handling, the flow, the satisfying drifts. That’s not shocking given Sega’s racing DNA (think OutRun and Initial D). I’d put it up against anything this year; yes, Mario Kart World is also great — quirks and all — and CrossWorlds is still behind Mario in raw sales, but it’s not exactly struggling.
The bigger Sega picture
If you’re wondering how this all fits into Sega’s longer plan, Sonic Team’s boss Takashi Iizuka laid it out pretty plainly:
Somewhere at Sonic Team is a whole 'roadmap of Sonic titles,' and the devs 'think about which game to release in which year'.
Translation: CrossWorlds is one piece of a larger schedule, and based on how quickly Sega is loading it with free and paid content, it’s a piece they plan to keep feeding for a while.