Ratchet & Clank Is Still Thriving Despite Being One Of PlayStation’s Oldest Series

Ratchet & Clank is one of the oldest continuing PlayStation-exclusive franchises, with other series either going multiplatform, like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, or dying off completely–like Sly Cooper, Twisted Metal, Wild Arms, Ape Escape… you get the idea.

But not our Lombax and robot duo! In fact, June’s NPD data shows Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was the best-selling game for the entire month in the US, and it doubled dollar sales of its predecessor on PS4. Ratchet & Clank is not only surviving but thriving in 2021–apparently enough to justify costing $30 more than its predecessor. It achieved higher dollar sales than any game in the series’ history, and this is despite the game being exclusive to a system that no one can even find.

That isn’t to say the path for the series has always been easy. There were the less-great spin-off games, the much-derided movie, and Into the Nexus, which is easy to forget exists because it released on PS3 just days before the PS4’s launch. Despite the hiccups, however, Insomniac’s series never radically reinvented the wheel, relying on tried-and-true 3D action-platforming up to and including the latest game.

It isn’t just the gameplay that time has been kind to, though. As Vice’s Patrick Klepek pointed out in a recent feature, Ratchet & Clank has been maintaining a constant canon for its story for the vast majority of its run–the 2016 game was a remake of the original, but it doesn’t really have any retcons that would nullify this. That’s great for longtime fans, but less so for newcomers, at least on paper, and it’s a testament to Insomniac Games’ talent that a game like Rift Apart can still feel like a great place to start if you’ve never played one of the other games.

It remains to be seen where the Ratchet & Clank series goes from here, but it’s clear that Insominac still loves working on it and we still love playing it. In addition to the sales figures, Rift Apart averaged an 88 score on GameSpot’s sister site Metacritic, along with a 90 user score. As other Insomniac franchises have come and gone (RIP Fuse), Ratchet & Clank has persevered.

For more on the franchise, check out our Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart review. Steve Watts awarded the game a 9/10, saying it’s “your trusty old pals on another grand space adventure.”