Panic has announced that it has sold 53,142 units of its Playdate handheld console in the year since it started shipping the device. The company’s initial expectation was to sell 20,000 consoles, so the numbers are more than double the anticipated figure. Panic opened pre-orders in mid-2021, which sold out in just 20 minutes, highlighting the high demand for the console.
Despite the high demand, manufacturing and delivery issues have caused problems for Panic. A “critical” battery issue with the first batch of consoles forced the company to switch suppliers, resulting in delays from late 2021 to 2022. Parts shortages also slowed down deliveries, and manufacturing costs resulted in a price increase of $20 to $199 earlier this month. Panic has shipped more than 27,000 Playdates to date, and it aims to fulfill all preorders by the end of 2023. After that, it hopes to make the Playdate available on an ad-hoc basis and to ship the Playdate Stereo Dock.
Each Playdate user has access to a library of 24 games, while more than 400 titles are available on Itch.io. Panic states that nearly 40% of users have sideloaded at least one game or app, and the company has recently launched Catalog, a built-in store. Users have installed Catalog games and apps more than 19,500 times so far.
Despite the challenges, Panic has managed to sell a significant number of units of the Playdate console. The company continues to work on making the device more accessible to players and has plans to expand the range of games and apps available to users.
