The best-selling online game final month was a free-to-play fighter from an organization in flux. Yes, MultiVersus, also referred to as Super Warner Bros. Melee, topped the gross sales charts for July 2022, in response to data-tracking agency NPD.

Released final month following an open beta interval, MultiVersus is a platform fighter in the identical vein as Nintendo’s perennially standard Super Smash Bros. collection. Its gimmick is a roster equally that includes a ton of disparate franchises—on this case, all from beneath Warner Bros.’ vaulted ceilings. You can play as characters from the likes of AdventureTime (Finn the Human, Jake the Dog), Rick and Morty (Rick, Morty), Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny, the Tasmanian Devil) the DC prolonged universe (Batman, Superman, buncha others), and extra. Confusingly, MultiVersus additionally stars The Iron Giant’s notably peaceable Iron Giant.

Unlike Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Nickelodeon’s comparable cross-franchise foray into preventing video games, MultiVersus has been incandescently standard, tallying an estimated 12 million gamers since launch. (As of this writing, All-Star Brawl has 13 lively gamers, in response to stat-tracking web site SteamDB.) MultiVersus can be one of many most-played titles on Valve’s Steam Deck handheld—despite the fact that preventing video games on handheld machines kinda suck. The energy of free-to-play.

Of course, the $0 price ticket doesn’t drum up any arduous money for writer Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Sales have been spurred final month by the Founders Pack, which begins at $40 relying on the version you get, and grants entry to characters within the roster.

It’s unclear what number of particular person Founders Packs have been bought, or what the entire greenback quantity got here out to, as NPD didn’t reveal these figures. But MultiVersus remains to be monitoring behind different 2022 gross sales behemoths like Elden Ring, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and Horizon Forbidden West, year-to-date. In truth, despite the fact that it topped the charts for July, MultiVersus isn’t among the many prime 20 best-selling video games of the 12 months.

Representatives for NPD didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The shadow over all of that is, after all, are the woes at Warner Bros. Interactive, a subdivision of WarnerMedia, which was not too long ago a part of a $43 billion merger with Discovery earlier this 12 months. This has despatched tremors by the leisure business, leading to primarily accomplished movies getting shelved (RIP Batgirl) and standard exhibits getting purged from the HBO Max streaming service (RIP Close Enough).

But WB’s video games division is seemingly doing simply high quality. In addition to MultiVersus, the family-friendly Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which got here out in April, was the third best-selling sport final month. There are extra potential juggernauts within the pipe, too. In October, Warner Bros. Interactive will launch Gotham Knights, a co-op open-world motion sport set in a model of DC canon the place Batman is useless. (Despite indications of a loot grind, Gotham Knights appears to be like kinda cool.) That’ll be adopted subsequent 12 months by a sport based mostly on Suicide Squad, DC’s contingent of anti-heroes.