Summary
New reports indicate thatClair Obscur: Expedition 33has struggled to sell copies in Japan. This information may seem surprising to some gamers due to the heavy JRPG influence found inClair Obscur: Expedition 33, and the fact that the title has continued to be a big hit in the West.
Released last month,Clair Obscur: Expedition 33sold 2 million copiesin its 12 days on store shelves. This is an incredibly impressive number, especially when considering that the game was released soon afterOblivion Remastered, another greatly successful title, and that it’s currently available via the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
Now, new reports fromFamitsu(viaGematsu) have indicated thatClair Obscur: Expedition 33sold only 9,825 physical units in Japan between its launch and Jul 27, 2025. While this may seem surprising at first glance, some aspects may help to explain the low sales count. For one, the data does not count digital sales, so gamers who acquiredClair Obscur: Expedition 33via Steam will not appear in this statistic, and it’s unknown if developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive sent out many physical copies of the game to Japan.Physical units ofClair Obscur: Expedition 33are already scarcein the West, so the same could be happening in Japan, and this may be negatively affecting sales. In any case, it’s not entirely expected to see a game with such strong Japanese inspirations selling so poorly in the region.
Critically,Clair Obscur: Expedition 33continues to be a wild success. Not only does the title currently hold an average critic score of 92 onOpenCritic, but it’s also being praised by the majority of voices in the industry. For example,Stellar Bladedirector Kim Hyung-tar recently praisedClair Obscur, revealing that the title was his favorite game of 2025 so far, and that he spent over 90 hours playing the RPG to obtain its Platinum Trophy.
Despite the wide success of the new RPG,Sandfall Interactive does not have plans forClair Obscur: Expedition 33DLC. According to studio co-founders Guillaume Broche and Tom Guillermin, the developer is currently not working on any kind of paid DLC, and most of the current goals are focused on improving the base game.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33recently saw an update which got rid of multiple bugs that were plaguing the title, and also nerfed Maelle’s Stendhal ability, which was seen as too overpowered by the developers due to its incredible damage output.
