Guilty Gear Strive passes 500,000 units sold

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One month after launch, Guilty Gear Strive already had reason to celebrate. In July 2021, Arc System Works announced on social media that the game had passed 500,000 units sold worldwide.

The pace was good from the start. Guilty Gear Strive came out on June 11, 2021 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC on Steam, and as early as the 14th Arc System Works reported it was already at 300,000 copies. Those who bought the Ultimate Edition on consoles could even start playing three days earlier, on June 8. In Japan, the PS4 version sold 11,722 physical copies in its first week and ranked eighth among the country’s best-selling games.

These numbers show that Arc System Works’ bet paid off. Strive received praise for its visuals, gameplay and, above all, its netcode, the network code that defines the quality of online matches, already highly praised by players in the betas. For a fighting game, where the online community keeps everything alive, this makes a big difference.

In the same announcement, the developer scheduled a YouTube stream for July 20 to reveal the game’s first DLC character, part of Season Pass 1, which would have five fighters.

We have covered the game here before: read our Guilty Gear Strive review and relive the reveal of I-No, which rounded out the initial roster.

What came next

The pass’s first fighter was Goldlewis Dickinson, released on July 27, 2021, followed by Jack-O’, Happy Chaos, Baiken and Testament, who closed the first season in March 2022. In August 2022, Strive reached one million copies and became the best-selling title in the franchise. Then came Xbox versions in 2023 and Nintendo Switch in 2025, plus further character seasons.