WhenDeath Strandingfirst launched in 2019, the conversation around it was split right down the middle. Some praised it as visionary, others dismissed it as a glorified walking simulator. But now, nearly six years later, the numbers speak for themselves: more than 20 million players have now played the game across PlayStation, PC, Xbox, and now even Apple devices.
Part of that success stems fromDeath Stranding’s long-tail strategy. Kojima Productions didn’t stop after the PlayStation 4 release and expanded with a Director’s Cut, pushed the game to PC, then Xbox, and eventually to cloud and Mac platforms. Each of these subsequent platforms then reintroduced the game to new audiences who either weren’t sold the first time around or didn’t know it existed.
The Game Evolved, but the World Also Caught Up With Kojima
At the time ofDeath Stranding’srelease, its themes of isolation, fragmented connections, and digital tethering felt abstract to some. Then the world experienced a global pandemic, and suddenly, this vision of rebuilding society through indirect cooperation wasn’t perhaps just sci-fi anymore. The gameplay loop of delivering resources, forging unseen connections, and rebuilding a broken world perhaps found new resonance in an era of remote work and digital socializing.
And it wasn’t just the themes that were ahead of their time. The gameplay itself — what Kojima called “strand-type” was a genre prototype. Instead of kill loops or territory control, it was about support, subtle competition, and asynchronous cooperation. Back in 2019, it sounded too experimental. In 2025,games likeDragon’s Dogma 2andElden Ringhave normalized asynchronous play. So, it’s possible that Kojima was simply early, and to back it up, now the player numbers consolidating speak for themselves.
‘Boring Walking Sim’ Was Never the Full Picture
The term “walking simulator” was thrown around often, but it was always reductive.Death Strandingemphasized terrain management, resource logistics, andenvironmental storytellingin ways most open-world games still don’t attempt. Balancing cargo, building infrastructure, and planning routes with most of the gameplay being stealth-based, while it might not be for everybody, certainly has an audience.
Death Stranding Has a Niche Audience That Found Its Way to the Game Eventually
Death Strandingcomes from Kojima, and that is why it doesn’t attempt to be universally appealing. The slow pacing, heavy mechanics, and deliberate design choices of the game almost seem engineered to turn away anyone looking for instant gratification. But for the players it does click with, it becomes more than a game. It demands focus, and the player has to weigh every decision: take on that extra delivery and risk stumbling, or play it safe and leave resources behind. Therefore, managing the player’s stamina, checking the terrain, and maybe patching up a rain-damaged container before it’s too late isn’t an inconvenience; that is thestrand-type gameplay.
Where other open-world games fill the map with distractions,Death Strandingbuilds a worldthat feels quiet, lonely, and deeply intentional. Whoever is playing the game is not racing to the next waypoint but forging a path instead, one careful step at a time. That is also why a zipline, bridge, or shelter built by another player feels earned and even emotional for the same reason. At the same time, the game isn’t exactly rewarding for a player who is used to the fast-paced and adrenaline-loaded gameplay ofApex Legends,per se. It’s clear thatDeath Strandingtook its time, but it has found its audience now, thanks to the multi-platform drip-drop release.
