Summary
Shortly after its addition to PlayStation Plus Premium,Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonushas already become the most popular classic game on the subscription service. The beloved PS2 platformer made its way to PlayStation Plus Premium as part of the service’s June 2024 catalog of titles, and newly sampled player data reveals thatSly Cooperfans showed up in droves to support the game.
The lastSly Coopergame,Thieves in Time, launched over a decade ago and neither developer Sucker Punch nor PlayStation have done anything with the IP since, with the former having moved on to Ghost of Tsushima. Therefore, the surprise announcement ofSly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonusbeing included as a classic title inPlayStation Plus Premium’s June 2024 lineupwas received quite well by fans of the franchise.
Although the June lineup addedthree new PS2 classics for PS Plus Premiummembers, the support forSly Cooper,in particular, has been surprisingly high. A newTrueTrophies reportsampled 3.1 million active PlayStation Network accounts and found that the Sucker Punch platformer saw the biggest launch for a classic title on the Premium tier, outpacing the player count of previous record-holderThe Legend of Dragoonby 2.5%. When expanded to encompass both the Extra and Premium libraries,Sly Cooperis now the eighth-biggest PS Plus game of 2024 so far (excluding Essential games).
Sly Cooper is The Biggest Classic Title on PS Plus Premium So Far
The report also reveals some comparative data between the recently added PS2 titles, withSly Cooperdrawing in nearly 39.7% more active players thanTomb Raider: Legendin the same week. DespiteTomb Raider: Legendexhibiting some issues on PS5, it has also done fairly well among the classic titles, currently standing as the third-biggest launch. The demand for new PS2-emulated games has grown in recent years, and PlayStation’s partnership with Implicit Conversions to bring fan-favorite titles from the mega-popular console to PS4 and PS5 is seemingly paying off already.
It must be noted, though, that TrueTrophies' player data only comes from a subset of 3.1 million users, which is quite small compared to the 118 million-odd monthly active users across PS3, PS4, and PS5. PlayStation’s internal telemetry may differ from the results of this report, so it shouldn’t be taken as an absolute measure ofSly Cooper’s success on PS Plus Premium. However, the PS2 classic title has done well to reignite buzz around the IP, and while there’snoSly 5in the worksright now, the popularity of the first game on PS Plus could prompt a reconsideration from Sucker Punch and Sony.
