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Cuphead Sells Over 1 Million Copies Already On PC And Xbox One

Think of how many deaths those players have suffered.

129 Comments

The wait for Cuphead was a long one, first being featured during Microsoft's E3 press conference in 2014--at which point it had already been in development for several years. Despite being on the market for just two weeks so far, the ultra-difficult action game has already reached a major sales milestone.

On its website today, developer StudioMDHR announced that Cuphead has gone platinum, having sold more than 1 million copies since launch. It did not provide any kind of breakdown between Xbox One and PC, which are the only two platforms Cuphead is available on currently.

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Now Playing: GS News Update: Cuphead Sells Over 1 Million Copies Already On PC And Xbox One

"We have worked tirelessly over the past few years to deliver a game that remained true to our vision and we are both humbled and excited that so many people from around the world are playing Cuphead--it truly makes it all worth it," wrote developers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer.

Cuphead was developed and published by StudioMDHR with help from Microsoft, hence the current exclusivity. Xbox boss Phil Spencer spoke with us about the game recently and admitted he hasn't beaten Cuphead yet--but he has a good excuse. He also alluded to positive sales, though he didn't get into any specifics at the time.

"I'm so happy for the studio," he said. "They worked a long time on the game, and to have the success they're having, selling very well, the reaction's been great--it's fantastic when those things come together, so it's great."

You can read more about the game in our Cuphead review and our exploration of why Cuphead's art complements its gameplay. We've also got tips on how to achieve S-rank on Cuphead's boss fights.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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ICING

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Don't have this game but I'm glad something like this can still be successful

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ButDuuude

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Cuphead is not a hard game. It lacks checkpoints and you have to start a level or boss fight from the beginning if you die, that's it.

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martintule24

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Haven't had time to finish it yet but so far so good, reminds me of the adventures of batman and robin on the sega genesis.

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Berserk8989

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Tiny bit disappointed that it didn't come to PS4, but on the other hand, it's system requirements are so low, that it runs flawlessly on my budget work laptop. Had to go through the hassle of hooking it up to my TV every time I played, but clearly worth it for such a quality game.

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ronaldmcreagan

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@Berserk8989: Hooking up a laptop to your TV sounds like a good idea. I should invest in a good gaming laptop and do the same. At least this way I could always play games at 60FPS.

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Ivanov70

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@ronaldmcreagan: Just hook your desktop up to the TV at least you can upgrade it unlike a laptop.

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Berserk8989

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@ronaldmcreagan: Shouldn't you rather invest in a desktop then?... A fairly reliable 60 fps laptop (with a GTX 1060 and an i5) costs about 6-7 times as much as a console (and even then, CPU/GPU throttling can happen in many after a time, due to the heat).

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ronaldmcreagan

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Edited By ronaldmcreagan

@Berserk8989: Console is too big, and would look silly next to my TV. A closed laptop will fit nice and snug in one of my four TV stand slots . The laptop I was looking at was $1299. It has a i5-7300HQ, and a GTX 1050. I should be able to get 60FPS with that setup. Worse case scenario, I'll just lower the graphic settings. I'm willing to sacrifice things like resolution for improved framerate. But before I buy my laptop, I'm going to wait and see what the new XBOXONE is capable of. If it will play all games in 60FPS, then I won't be buying a gaming laptop.

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Berserk8989

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Edited By Berserk8989

@ronaldmcreagan: That's a terrible idea, man and I'd strongly advise you to try building a similar mini-desktop if you're willing to spend money and time (even though the size will still be much bigger than a console). You'll get far better specs for that money (a GTX 1050 won't get you very far in demanding games if you're targeting 60 frames, a 1060 would be ideal). Also, a laptop, even a 15-incher is wider than a console, only the height is lower (most of the time) and if you'll be running it with the lid closed down in a fairly enclosed space, you'll 100% run into heat problems very soon, doesn't matter which laptop it is.

The Xbox One also won't be a reliable 60 frames machine, because of that terrible CPU it has and I highly doubt that demanding non-first party titles will bother to optimize for frame-rate over visuals. Rise of the Tomb raider got a 60 fps mode, but it's still pretty unstable on the X (and that's not a CPU-heavy game, unlike many open world ones or physics-heavy ones for example). For 500€ it does offer value and can deliver great visuals, but if you're really fixed on 60 fps and don't care much for anything else (while also having money to spend), a mini-PC would be the better choice.

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ronaldmcreagan

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Edited By ronaldmcreagan

@Berserk8989: When you say heat problems, what exactly do you mean? Do you mean it will affect performance, or will it actually damage my laptop? Cause I definitely don't want that happening. And would a cooling pad solve any heating problems? Also, I guess I will be getting a GTX 1060 since 1050s obviously aren't as good as I had previously thought.

I really don't understand why developers for consoles don't optimize their games and give players a choice of 60 FPS with less visuals. How hard would that be to do? If you can do in on a PC with every single game, then surely you could also do it with consoles?

And why are we even having this discussion in 2017??? How the hell is 30FPS still the standard in console gaming? Are we still going to be playing games in 30FPS blur-vision with the PS5 and PS6? I'm starting to think we will. Which is why my console days are done. Time to join the PC master race and never look back.

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Berserk8989

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Edited By Berserk8989

@ronaldmcreagan: Both. It would certainly lower the life expectancy of your machine, while also activating thermal throttling (decrease of CPU and/or GPU clocks to prevent overheating, which, of course, results in lower performance).

Cooling pads normally aren't really effective. It depends on the build of the laptop. If the underside is metal, it could help, but if it's plastic, the difference would be negligible. Besides, you'd elevate the laptop quite a bit by adding a cooling pad, making it even bigger in height and therefore contributing to your 'size' problem. As said, better just try building a desktop PC in a small case.

Consoles are very cheap machines, so there are naturally compromises. It's much harder achieving 60 fps, than it is increasing resolution and other visual settings. For Resolution and most visual settings, almost only GPU power is required, but for framerate, you also need a decent CPU along the good GPU that can process those frames the GPU spits out, which is hard to do for a CPU, if it also has processes of it's own to do in a game (CPU intensive processes, like physics and AI for example). This gen, the consoles are very imbalanced, especially the PRO and the upcoming X. They feature pretty powerful GPU's, but still have the same (just barely improved) tablet-like CPU's as the regular PS4 and XOne, so optimizing for frame-rate is really hard to do and many developer's just don't bother with it (or it just isn't possible, no matter what). For example, pair a GTX 1080 Ti with a Low end Pentium CPU from a few years ago and you'd also get nowhere near 60 frames in most today's games, since the weak CPU is 'bottlenecking' the GPU.

Well, I don't mind 30 fps in more casual single-player games (like The Witcher 3 for example) and prefer improved visual fidelity over frame-rate in such cases. It is a must for me in fast paced single- or multiplayer games like first person shooters, platformers and racing sims.

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ronaldmcreagan

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Edited By ronaldmcreagan

@Berserk8989: Thanks for the explanation. You've changed my mind. I'll go with a PC tower instead of a laptop.

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Berserk8989

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@ronaldmcreagan: Np. I'm sure you'll be much more satisfied that way. A gaming laptop should really only be bought if you need the portability. Keeping it lid-down in an enclosed space for home-gaming is a 'death sentence'.

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Neoistheone

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I'm buying it today. I may not like it but it looks cool at least.lol

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urbanman2004

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The devs deserved it

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teppolundgren

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That's OK, Xbox and PC, you keep your exclusive piece of cup. I mean, Uncharted or a cup? Which is better? XD

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truemack69

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@teppolundgren: it's amazing all you PS4 fans always knocking the Xbox for not having many exclusives, and when we finally get one, and it's a good one, you try and crap on it. Lol. go play uncharted then

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teppolundgren

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@truemack69: But it's not a good one, though, is it, Mack? Not reeeally. And that's the point I made.

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ButDuuude

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@truemack69: Cuphead is not an exclusive. I bought it for Xbox one though.

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Neoistheone

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@teppolundgren: you still play uncharted.lol

You need more games.

At this point in time I'd rather play cup head over uncharted 10.lol

But then again uncharted games are always worth at least one or two play throughs. But you won't catch me playing it a year later. These aren't Xbox exclusives like gears 4. I still play that at least 2 twice a week.

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teppolundgren

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@neoistheone: Well, I played the new Uncharted game last month, but other than that, no, I don't still play the series. I've got all the platinums, so I'm done.

I only mentioned Uncharted as an excellent example of an exclusive that's better than the cup game, and one that Americans have to buy a proper console to play.

And I have about 30 unplayed games in my library, so I think I'm good for a while.

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ReadySalted

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@teppolundgren: Uncharted is a terrible example. That's like saying GT Sport is a good choice if you want to play a decent NBA game.

What on PS4 is better than Cuphead in the same genre?

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Neoistheone

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Edited By Neoistheone

@teppolundgren: yeah the uncharted games have been good.

I mostly avoid my ps4 because of network speed and controller.

I can buy a 60gb game on xblive and play it with in 1 hour or wait 10 for ps4.

Online I can have a latency of 40ms or I can have one of 80ms on ps4.

Controller wise I can put in high end aa batteries and keep swapping out for charged ones instead of having to switch controllers or play with a cord hanging out the end.lol What is this the 90s I thought we went wireless.

Now it's because they don't support 4k textures. There's always an excuse to play somewhere else but in the end the games are the same. I know in Europe there's still a big misconception that ps is better but really the Xbox consoles are better in most ways. Definitely in the ways I just mentioned.

Every once in a while when a good ps4 exclusive comes along I'll fire up my old ps4 pro. I'm thinking god of war.

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teppolundgren

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@neoistheone: 1. Downloads depend on your connection speed. A 60 GB game takes me about 3 hours to fully download, but I can start playing it after an hour or less. And then I play and download simultaneously.

2. Xbox One depends on its CPU, right? Well, PS4 is wired differently. As I understand it, it relies equally on its CPU and GPU, so any latency issue is smoothed out by this collaborative effort by the hardware. And in any case, we're talking about a difference of microseconds here, so a 40ms difference is negligible since it's compensated for by the PS4 hardware. You won't notice the difference with the naked eye.

3. The PS4 controller is designed to fit in your hand. The Xbox controller is like a cardboard box with buttons that are distributed in an insanely uncomfortable and illogical way. And having to swap batteries sounds a lot more like the 90's to me than to simply keep on playing plugged in for a while, and then unplugging again when the controller's charged. I always play plugged in because I'm sitting right next to my PS4, but that's a personal choice and not something that's necessary.

4. PS4 fully supports 4k. Xbox One doesn't. You can brush that fact under the carpet if you want to, but that would be dishonest.

Both these consoles share a lot of similarities, and both are valid options if you don't care about which has the better library of games (PS4). But the PS4 is elegant and sexy, whereas Xbox One is a slab of ugly plastic concrete.

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Neoistheone

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@teppolundgren: how is the ps4 pro elegant if it's bigger,louder, and uglier than the og xb1?

The latency comes directly from slower servers. It takes longer to connect to them as they are rented from amazon or yahoo.

How can ps4 fully support 4k if it doesn't even support 4k physical media. It doesn't support 4k Blu rays.

Playing with your controller plugged in sounds lame and more like the 90s as most controllers back then had wires.

Yeah I moved on from wires to the best Panasonic batteries money can buy.lol my batteries will out last your ds4 by at least 40hrs.

On top of that the dual shock 4 is missing the dual vibration in the triggers. For having the work shock in the name you would think they would upgrade the vibration feature at least once in 20 years lol

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Bamda

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I love this game, it's not easy but extremely fun and the graphics are just the topper for me.

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guzforster

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...And all I want is a Mac or PS4 version after two years waiting.

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Kyrylo

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Nice game...but tad to short. I've beaten it in 3 evening sesssions and honestly I expected it to be longer.

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Midna

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I’ll get it when it’s on sale.

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deactivated-5a0b0bf0c8fa5

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Favourite release of the year so far.

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RyanBurnsRed

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@repulsive44552: It's a hard decision for me between Nier Automata and this game. I think they're both great works of art

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redviperofdorne

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Challenging game but money well spent. Finally, An Xbox exclusive worth buying.

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ButDuuude

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@redviperofdorne: It's not an Xbox one exclusive and it never was.

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redviperofdorne

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@ButDuuude:
Exclusive to PC and One. Both are Microsoft so it's an exclusive.

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deactivated-5d4c0b80dcd76

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I bought Cuphead for PC, but asked for a refund. Great gameplay and controls, outstanding artwork and concept, but I didn’t like how the reaction animations to me felt like they were just scripted events after the invisible hit box reached 0 hp for that phase of a fight. And the entire enemy had one big hit box which just flashes while getting shot up. This game experience wasn’t anything better than or groundbreaking over say a Metal Slug or Contra 3 or Raiden game. I’ll just stick with the classics.

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tranceology3

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@mbrogz3000: The experience is 75% the hand drawn art style! It's totally unique, that's what makes the game so good. Sure, it doesn't have different gameplay elements like those traditional games you mentioned, but the difficulty is what makes the game addicting - it's compelling to get to the next boss, plus there is a little strategy.

Also, there are many enemies that have a distinct hitbox, not the entire enemy.

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deactivated-5afeea4d8be41

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@mbrogz3000: I hope you didn't get a bloody refund for that sad excuse for a reason not to like a game. It was made by like 20 people and it's all hand drawn! And your complaining about reaction animations? really?

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ronaldmcreagan

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@graffitiheart: 20 people made that game? Wow. That is impressive.

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Domiddian

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@graffitiheart: It was either an excuse or it was a reason, can't be both.

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DaVillain

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Edited By DaVillain  Moderator

@domiddian: Cuphead isn't for every and he did at least play it and find out it wasn't for him/her so at least there's an excuse.

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Domiddian

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Edited By Domiddian

@davillain-: I’m not disputing any of that dude, I’m simply saying there’s a difference between an excuse and a reason. An excuse is usually a cop-out whereas a reason is a bonafide justification for doing/not doing something.

I’d say this guy had a reason not to like the game.

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angrycreep

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Edited By angrycreep

I have it for my PC and the game is really good and tough as nail. Yeah is only Windows and Xbox it will never be in any other platform other than those two. They already confirm it that is only Xbox and Windows. Is ashamed this game would have been a perfect fit for the Switch and having the game in the go. This would have been a good seller for the Nintendo Switch. It has sold over a million already and is only windows and Xbox, you can only imagine if this game would have been available for other platforms those numbers could have been double maybe 2 millions who knows.

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RedWave247

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Edited By RedWave247

Well deserved. This will definitely top a lot of Top 10 lists this year. In that sense, it's this year's Undertale.

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Pyrosa

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Fantastic game... It's like re-learning how to play platformers and bullet hell shooters all over again, but with AMAZING production values. Hit boxes are all generous, but DAMN it is still hard...

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