Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio released Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC last week. Looking at the data of the other Yakuza and Like a Dragon games that launched straight into Xbox Game Pass, this latest entry has garnered the second-highest player base of the series in its first week, but it still has half of the players Yakuza 0 managed to entice in the same time.According to our data, Yakuza 0 saw over 30,200 TrueAchievements members jump into the game during its launch week, starting on February 26, 2020, and pop an achievement. In second place, and with less than half of the player count in the same time, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name has tracked just over 14,900 players since launching on November 9, 2023. Following in third place is Yakuza Kiwami with over 7,600 players in its first week, starting on April 22, 2020.Looking at the graph above, the tracked TrueAchievements members playing Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, and Yakuza 5 remasters during their launch week drop with each sequel, which we assume is due to them all launching on Xbox and Game Pass on the same day — who wants to play a series out of order? Surprisingly, though, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life didn’t follow suit, as it drew in over 3,200 TrueAchievements members in its first week, although it did arrive a couple of months after Yakuza 3-5.It’s always interesting to see how games fare when launching into the highly accessible Xbox Game Pass service, especially when it comes down to well-established franchises — something we explored in our recent Forza Motorsport analysis. Interestingly, we’ve now had all ten Yakuza / Like a Dragon games launch on Xbox. Eight of these hopped straight into Xbox Game Pass, with the only exceptions being Like a Dragon: Ishin! earlier this year and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which arrived as an Xbox Series X|S launch title in 2020. That launch opened the floodgates for the franchise, and in the year or so following its launch, Sega rolled the rest of the series onto Xbox.Now, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that while Yakuza: Like a Dragon was the first brand-new Yakuza game to make it onto the platform, it trailed behind the other entries for player numbers in its first week as it didn’t have the advantage of Xbox Game Pass. Similarly, Ishin! likely didn’t see as many players in its first week in Game Pass as it had already released on Xbox eight months prior. Our data, which shows us how many tracked TrueAchievements members popped an achievement in a game’s launch week, reveals that Yakuza 0 takes the crown as the most-played title of the series during its first seven days. We can only assume that Yakuza 0’s success compared to the rest of the franchise is due to it being the first game in the series, as well as it being the first series entry to join Xbox Game Pass. It’s only natural that players would flock to it after not having it on Xbox for so long. As for The Man Who Erased His Name, while it’s done much better than the rest of the series’ Game Pass launches, it’s set between the events of Yakuza 6 and next year’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, so many players who haven’t pushed through the series so far might not be inclined to jump in.If reading this has got you in the mood for some fun in Ryu Ga Gotoku’s games, multiple Yakuza and Like a Dragon games are available alongside some of the best games on Game Pass!
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