Quick answer: Kojima Productions says the Death Stranding series has passed 28 million players worldwide. That is a player count, not copies sold, and it includes all console and PC versions plus free access through subscription services for Death Stranding, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. No per-game or per-platform split was given. Current as of November 8, 2026.
The Death Stranding series has now passed 28 million players worldwide, Kojima Productions announced on its official English X account late on November 7, 2026, Central time, which was already November 8 in Japan. The studio timed the number to Death Stranding Day, the seventh anniversary of the original game’s PlayStation 4 launch on November 8, 2019. An official anniversary poster puts it in the series’ own language: “28 million porters worldwide” and “7 years since BB was born.”
“The connections that began with DEATH STRANDING continue to grow and spread across the world,” the studio wrote, thanking fans for their continued support.
Players, not sales
The fine print matters here. A footnote on the official poster says the 28 million figure includes all console versions, all PC versions, and free access as part of various subscription services. It covers three releases together: Death Stranding, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
So this is not a sales number, and it should not be read as one. Under that definition, someone who tried the original through a subscription counts the same as someone who bought the sequel at full price. Kojima Productions did not say how the 28 million splits between the two games or across platforms, and it did not release a copies sold figure.
How fast the number moved
The last official milestone came in early April 2025, when Kojima Productions and Hideo Kojima said Death Stranding had passed 20 million players, as PC Gamer reported at the time.
That figure landed before the sequel existed on store shelves. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach launched on PS5 on June 26, 2025, and reached PC on March 19, 2026, according to PlayStation Blog. In other words, the series added roughly 8 million players in about 19 months, and that window includes the sequel’s entire life so far on both platforms. Because the studio did not break the total down, it is impossible to say how much of that growth came from the sequel and how much came from the original still finding new players.
Why it matters
Seven years after a divisive delivery game launched on PS4, Death Stranding is a two-game series with a steadily climbing audience, and Kojima Productions measures it in porters rather than units. For a series built around connecting people, that framing fits. For anyone tracking actual sales, the footnote is the part to remember.
Sources: Kojima Productions official X posts (November 8, 2026, including the 28 million poster and footnote and the Death Stranding Day post), PC Gamer (April 2, 2025), PlayStation Blog (March 9, 2025 and February 12, 2026). Official Death Stranding 7th anniversary artwork courtesy of Kojima Productions.
