New sales figures for the Horizon franchise have been revealed in the wake of Sony’s lawsuit against Tencent Games. Developer Guerrilla Games first kickstarted the Horizonfranchise with 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, which introduced gamers to the young nomad warrior Aloy as she searched for her destiny in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by animal-like machines and feuding tribes. Since then, there has been the 2022 sequel Horizon: Forbidden West, a 2023 VR spin-off titled Horizon Call of the Mountain, and 2024’s kid-friendly collect-a-thon LEGO Horizon Adventures.
Earlier this week, the Horizon series was thrust back into headlines with the announcement that Sony was launching a lawsuit against Tencent Games over Light of Motiram, a game that was announced in November 2024 by subsidiary developer Polaris Quest. It quickly drew comparisons to the Horizon franchise thanks to its strikingly similar visual style, a gallery of robotic “Mechanimal” wildlife that wouldn’t look too out of place in the Claim or the Forbidden West, and even a red-haired, bow-wielding female protagonist who strongly resembles Aloy.
If Zero Dawn and Forbidden West paint a portrait of the series’ future, Horizon 3 may not be the threequel to move many mountains.
Sony’s resulting lawsuit against Tencent has revealed updated sales figures for the Horizon franchise. Gaming insider Shinobi602 took note of one of the legal documents filed by Sony in light of the lawsuit, which states that the Horizon franchise has sold over 38 million copies worldwide. This is about a 6 million increase from the last Horizon sales report in May 2023, which revealed that the franchise sold 32 million units globally.
Horizon Has Sold Over 38 Million Copies Worldwide
This ties into Sony’s argument that Tencent had access to the Horizon series at the time it first conceptualized Light of Motiram, even if it hadn’t previously approached Sony for the rights to license the IP. Sony is now seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 from Tencent for each infringed work, as well as a court order that would block Light of Motiram from being released and order Tencent to destroy all related promotional materials for the game.
Regardless of how this lawsuit ends, Sony has a third mainline game in development that will presumably pick Aloy’s story up from where Horizon Forbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC left off. A live-action film adaptation of Horizon Zero Dawnis also in the works at PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures, as was announced a few months after the previously planned television series was scrapped. An online, multiplayer Horizongame is also planned.
