The Order: 1886 sets out to prove reviews don’t matter

Prior to the release of The Order: 1886, industry analyst Michael Pachter predicted two things: Sony's newest PS4 exclusive would get glowing reviews, and go on to sell with a "pretty high" attach rate. One of those things is proving to be true as The Order: 1886 jumped to first place in the UK games sale charts, despite lackluster reviews and a pedestrian 65 average on Metacritic.

Despite doing some things incredibly well, the overall consensus was that The Order: 1886 was a disappointment — with scores dragged down for boring gameplay and a short playthrough average.

We don't know how many copies have been sold exactly, as GfK Chart-Track only reveals the overall order of top 40 games sold, but I think it can be assumed that The Order: 1886 had to have sold pretty well to top Evolve, which released just the week before. It's even more impressive considering The Order: 1886 is a PlayStation 4 exclusive.

So do gamers really just not care about reviews? It's certainly possible, though I find it hard to believe the overwhelmingly amount of negative reviews didn't have any sort of impact on sales. More than likely, The Order: 1886's success is due to the current pre-order now culture of the gaming industry, coupled with gamers' desire to play a new, blockbuster title. For Sony, this was the first major PS4 exclusive released since October's Driveclub — and we all know how that turned out. With many of us starved for big, "next-gen" games, it's likely that Sony's massive marketing push built The Order: 1886 up into something it simply couldn't live up to.