Uncharted 4 Hits 37 Million Players, As Game Celebrates 5th Anniversary

Naughty Dog's Uncharted 4: A Thief's End was released on May 10, 2016, meaning the action-adventure game is now five years old. To celebrate the milestone, Naughty Dog released some updated player statistics for the game, while some people who worked on it shared stories.

Beginning with the stats, Naughty Dog says Uncharted 4 had 37 million players. While the game might not have sold that many copies (it was free on PlayStation Plus for a period of time), it's still a massive achievement and worthy of celebration.

The graphic also shows that 13.3 million people have played Uncharted 4 multiplayer, while 9.5 million people used one of the game's accessibility features (accessibility support was a major focus for Uncharted 4). We also learned that 12 million people hit all the targets with the toy gun in one of the game's early missions and that 2 million people took a photo of Sully using Photo Mode.

Troy Baker, who voiced Nathan Drake's brother Sam in Uncharted 4, reflected on the anniversary in a tweet. He said, "This game represents so much to me. Not just as an actor but as a fan. This franchise simultaneously entertained me and showed me a star on the horizon to which I could point and say 'There. That's where I want to go.'"

Kurt Margenau, the co-game director for Uncharted 4, also shared some thoughts on the five-year anniversary. He called out a number of exciting set pieces, and the in-game playable Crash Bandicoot, as special moments for him from the game. "Thanks, Dogs, that helped bring it together," he said, linking to one of the game's story trailers from 2016.

Uncharted 4 was Naughty Dog's first game developed specifically for PS4 from the beginning. It was also the first Naughty Dog game to use facial capture for motion capture.

"It was the first project that we used facial capture, so that was a transition for our team because we were used to hand-keying everything," Uncharted 4 cinematics animator Marianne Hayden said in a blog post. "Now, we had not only full-body data where we had to learn how to use a new rig and a new system, we had to figure out how to make it look really good."

In terms of future Uncharted games, a report from April said Days Gone studio Sony Bend was working on a new Uncharted title. However, the studio reportedly asked to be moved off the project and Sony agreed; the studio is now believed to be making "a new game of their own" as Sony opted to not move forward with Days Gone 2.

Naughty Dog has said it will not develop a new Uncharted game, and that Nathan Drake's story is over. The series could continue with a new studio and lead character, Naughty Dog has said.

As for Naughty Dog, the studio is now believed to be working on a remake of The Last of Us for PS5, in addition to a multiplayer game. As for its next big project, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann said it could be The Last of Us Part III, a new IP, or something else.