Demon's Souls is a technical marvel and one of the best games available that truly showcases the capabilities of the PS5. While playing it, players will find themselves stunned by its incredible visuals and pulled in by the immersive features of the DualSense controller, so it isn't hard to believe that it's selling well.
To those that didn't know any better, it may seem hard to believe that Demon's Souls actually came out back in 2009 for the PS3, as the remake does an excellent job of modernizing it for today's audience. Despite this, Bluepoint Games also manages to maintain the unique mood of the original game, making it the perfect harmony of old and new.
On Sony's PlayStation blog, the tech giant shared the most downloaded games of 2020 for various categories. Not surprisingly, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War dominated the charts in most regions including North America and Europe, but the same can't be said for Japan, as they instead preferred Demon's Souls.
There's a lot of interesting data in Sony's most downloaded chart, but one of the most striking things is Demon's Souls' position at the top in Japan. For reference, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War claimed that spot for both the North American and European statistics, showing a clear difference in interest. The new Call of Duty game is still a strong contender on the Japanese side of things, coming in at third behind Demon's Souls and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but it doesn't claim the top spot.
Likewise, Demon's Souls still makes an appearance on the USA/Canada statistics, coming in at fifth place behind Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and NBA 2K21: Next Generation. Outside of a few of these games, the lists are very different, with the Japanese games featuring things like Dead by Daylight, Godfall, and even No Man's Sky that are nowhere to be found on the North American list.
Ultimately, FromSoftware is a Japanese company, and the Souls series is very popular in that region as a result. Particularly with Demon's Souls, the title wasn't even initially bound for a western release until its popularity started to spike. Few would argue that Demon's Souls doesn't deserve this spot on the top of the list, as it really is a great showcase for the PS5. That said, it's only a matter of time before developers get even better at utilizing the PS5's unique hardware.
Demon's Souls is available now on PS5.