Windrose Reportedly Led April Game Sales Estimates With 1.7M Copies, Narrowly Ahead of Crimson Desert
A new market estimate from Alinea Analytics suggests that Windrose was the best selling game across Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox in April, with an estimated 1.7 million copies sold during its debut month. According to the report, Crimson Desert followed closely behind at an estimated 1.6 million copies for April, while EA Sports FC 26 placed third at 1.4 million. Alinea also placed Pragmata in fourth and Slay the Spire 2 in fifth for the month.
What makes Windrose especially notable is that the game achieved that result during Early Access after launching on April 14, 2026, with Steam listing it as an Early Access release from Kraken Express. In other words, this was not a fully launched multiplatform blockbuster pushing to the top with a standard retail rollout. It was an Early Access pirate survival title that appears to have cut through the market fast enough to top the month’s estimated sales ranking.
The margin over Crimson Desert also appears to have been extremely tight. Alinea’s figures indicate a gap of only about 100,000 copies between the 2 titles for April, which suggests the month’s leaderboard was highly competitive rather than dominated by a single runaway release. That is an important distinction, especially because Crimson Desert had already built momentum before April and continued to convert strongly across platforms during the month.
For Pragmata, the chart placement needs a bit of context. Alinea’s ranking covers Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, but Capcom separately announced on May 7, 2026, that PRAGMATA had surpassed 2 million units sold worldwide in 16 days after its April 17 launch. That means fourth place in Alinea’s April cross platform estimate still sits alongside what Capcom itself describes as a very strong commercial start for the new IP.
The biggest takeaway here is that Windrose may be shaping up as one of 2026’s surprise breakout launches. If Alinea’s estimate holds up, the game did more than perform well for an indie leaning Early Access release. It outpaced one of the year’s most discussed premium launches in Crimson Desert during April’s sales race across the tracked platforms. Since these are still market estimates rather than official publisher reported sell through numbers, they should be treated carefully, but they still point to Windrose having entered the year’s conversation in a very serious way.
Do you think Windrose can keep this momentum through Early Access, or is Crimson Desert still the game more likely to dominate the full year?
