A sci-fi game from 2016 is one of the most-played PS5 games, nine years after its release. To this end, the game in question was the 17th most-downloaded game on the PlayStation Store in September. And according to PS Time Tracker, one of the most-played games on PS5 right now. What makes this more impressive is the fact that while the game has multiplayer, it’s primarily a single-player game. In fact, it didn’t even have multiplayer at launch. In the traditional sense, the sci-fi game isn’t a live-service game either. Yet, PlayStation fans and more continue to play it almost a decade later, en masse.
When you think of the best sci-fi games of the last years, you probably think of the likes of NieR Automata, Half-Life: Alyx, Returnal, or Death Stranding and its new sequel, the latter of which is one of the best games of 2025. A game that probably doesn’t come to mind, despite being far more popular than all of these, is No Man’s Sky. That said, it may be time to start putting No Man’s Sky not just in the conversation of best sci-fi games of the decade, but of all time.
When No Man’s Sky released in 2016, it was one of the most anticipated games of its year. In fact, it was one of the most anticipated games of the PS4 generation, despite coming from an unproven indie studio in the form of Hello Games. There are two reasons for this: its obvious potential and incredible over-promising. And when it was released in August of that year, the controversy of the latter drowned out the former. It was a massive mess.
Over time, though, slowly but surely, Hello Games turned this around with persistent updates that improved the sci-fi exploration game, expanded it, and ultimately accumulated in one of the biggest comebacks in gaming history. When you boot it up in 2025, you can still see the bones of the game that released in 2016, but all of the new content and improvements render it a completely different experience.
No Man’s Sky can be beaten in about 30 hours, but the main campaign is not its appeal. It’s not what draws players in or retains them. Thanks to impressive procedural generation and game systems layered on game systems, there is an endless amount of content to experience through exploration, and it’s that intrigue and wonder that draws players in and keeps them coming back. To this end, it has more players in 2025 than it did in 2016.
The only sci-fi game that outsold No Man’s Sky on PS5 last month was Helldivers 2, which is not only newer but has a multiplayer hook. And this isn’t a fluke. Just about every month, it is among the most-downloaded PS5 games on the PlayStation Store, despite still being $60.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum.
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