Batman Arkham City made a stunning $600 million in revenue in its first year on the shelves

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who made a fortune off of Batman: Arkham City that can only be counted in the fattest of cash stacks? Arkham Asylum’s first sequel may not be regarded with the same level of adoration that other games in the caped crusader series managed to achieve, but it’s fine I forgive you guys. You all make mistakes.

Anyway, coming in hot to trot thanks to Batman: Arkham Asylum’s genre-breaking debut a few years earlier, Arkham City had plenty of hype behind it and giving it the necessary momentum to be a sales juggernaut at the time. There was no question that the follow-up that featured Bruce Wayne’s nocturnal persona practising fist-based dentistry was going to do well, with sales reaching the six million units sold mark a mere four months after its October 2011 release.

The game did gangbusters, and it continued to do so in the months and years to come. According to the LinkedIn profile of Warner Bros.’ global franchise marketing manager for Arkham City (Cheers PC Gamer), Arkham City eventually went on to sell 12.5 million copies in its first year of existence, netting its developer Rocksteady Studios and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive (Who might be up for sale) a cool $600 million in revenue. Not too shabby! With numbers like that, it’s no wonder that we got a prequel to fill the void while Rocksteady worked on Batman: Arkham Knight.

Batman’s home box office record would stand for years as the top-selling superhero video game of all time, until a certain pesky neighbourhood Spider-Man came along and toppled the billionaire orphan with anger management issues. No small feat, for a console exclusive game when compared to Arkham City’s multi-platform release:

Long story short? Batman’s war on crime could easily be funded by having Wayne Enterprises start a video game division. As for Rocksteady and Warner Bros. Montreal, the studios have been working on something new for several years now, and I’m going to go stark raving mad if next month’s DC Fandome event doesn’t produce some concrete confirmation of games that have been teased for far far too long.

Last Updated: July 27, 2020