GameRant: Six open-world RPGs took years to find an audience

GG Brief Editorial Desk · AI-assisted, source attributed

GameRant reported on September 26, 2026 that Vlad Mazanko compiled a list titled "6 Best Open-World RPGs That Nobody Played At First," highlighting six modern open‑world RPGs that were largely overlooked at launch and only found audiences years later. The article states modern open‑world RPGs commonly attract hundreds of thousands of players at day one and may sell over a million copies within their first few weeks, which makes unnoticed releases less common today. Mazanko's piece says even strong games can struggle to find an audience and that entirely new franchises are especially at risk. The author is identified as Vlad Mazanko, a Ukraine‑based writer who has covered games since 2013 and joined Valnet in 2021.

• What happened: GameRant published a September 26, 2026 article by Vlad Mazanko titled "6 Best Open-World RPGs That Nobody Played At First," listing six modern open‑world RPGs that the piece says were largely ignored at launch and gained players only years later.
• Why it matters: The article notes that modern open‑world RPGs often see hundreds of thousands of players at day one and can exceed a million sales within weeks, so titles that start small run counter to current commercial patterns.
• Context: Mazanko reports that while this outcome is rarer now, even strong games can still struggle to find an audience and that launches are especially risky for completely new franchises.
• What next: The supplied evidence does not list which specific games appear in Mazanko's six‑title list or provide sales figures for those individual games; the GameRant article is the sole identified source for the claim.