‘Rocket League’ surpasses predecessor with 5 million downloads

Before “Rocket League,” there was its predecessor, “Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars.” The latter was poorly received despite having similar elements as the former. However, “Rocket League” has become very popular in just a short time since its release. Now, the game has reached yet another milestone in its lifetime.

The official Twitter account of “Rocket League” tweeted that the game has been downloaded over five million times for both the PC and PS4. These figures include the PS Plus downloads, as “Rocket League” became free as part of PS Plus membership through Aug. 4.

Psyonix, the developers behind the game, told Polygon that it took “Rocket League” just three weeks to double the lifetime downloads of its predecessor. Just last week, “Rocket League” hit 4 million downloads, added the developer. Jeremy Dunham, vice president of Psyonix, said that the developers did not expect such a positive response from gamers as the predecessor was not received well.

With a massive content update scheduled this August, the numbers may increase even more. The August update is set to introduce new cars and a new Utopia-based arena that features a regular stadium-style instead of the previous circular form.

Its poorly-received predecessor, first released in 2009, features the same cars found in “Rocket League.” However, it plays similarly to its sequel as it has the same goal of scoring points using a giant ball. It has a single-player campaign in which, the player is subjected to various mini games. It also has fewer cars than “Rocket League,” with only seven in total. The cars have the same speed and durability, but the game physics and the car’s appearance play a role in making each car behave differently.

“Rocket League” on the other hand, was launched last July 7 on Windows PC and PS4. In this game, players will take control of heavily armed cars and their objective is to score a goal over their opponent with a giant ball.

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