If one thing is clear, is that 007 First Light has been one of the most eagerly anticipated games of the year. It is also the first James Bond game to see a release in a very long time. And fortunately Danish developer IO Interactive has seemingly delivered a video game worthy of the 007 number, as the game’s Metacritic score currently stands at 87, making it one of the best-reviewed games of 2026. Actually, it could be the best James Bond game since the Nintendo 64’s GoldenEye to star the iconic British spy, which is no mean feat.
So it is not surprising that the game has done pretty well for IO Interactive since release… As a matter of fact the game sold a whopping 1.5 million copies in the first 24 hours, as Danish company IO recently revealed in an X post (via GameSpot).
Back in 2025, their Hitman 3 game also had a strong debut, with big first day and first week sales, with IO recouping development costs during the game’s first week in the market. Hitman 3 (which the company later renamed to Hitman: World of Assassination) has sold tens of millions of copies to date, so it remains to be seen if the Danish studio’s James Bond game will be as successful.
1.5 million copies sold!
Thank you for showing up to the launch of 007 First Light, for your overwhelming enthusiasm and for sharing your experience with the game.
Play our re-imagined James Bond origin story today and #EarnTheNumber. Available now.https://t.co/St9989ZtWx… pic.twitter.com/jyncC0LEkV
— 007 First Light (@007GameIOI) May 28, 2026
Unlike Hitman, though, 007 First Light is more of a linear, story-based, single player game, which should take the average gamer about 15 hours to finish, so it seemingly doesn’t have much replay value. IO Interactive, though, is still planning to support the game after launch with updates and the release of post-launch content, as it told video game outlet Eurogamer in an interview.
“Hitman is sandbox and by nature feels more open to repetition. This one is more narrative driven, so once you’ve done the story, what else can you do? And that’s what we’re trying to do with TacSim”, said Veronique Lallier, who is chief development officer at IO Interactive.
“TacSim” here refers to “Tactical Simulations”, which can be accessed in the game when 007 is at MI6 headquarters. A character named Selena Tan will let you take on TacSim challenges in the game, which are essentially remixed versions of 007 First Light’s levels, but with different win conditions.
“There might be encounters where there was no combat encounter there before at all, and now we’ve actually reused the space in a clever way. TacSim is basically a space in which we can remix our levels”, said the studio’s designer Tom Marcham in the Eurogamer interview.
The company also said there will be a roadmap of content related to TacSim, which should keep players busy for some time after they’re done with 007 First Light’s campaign.
This will be good news for those looking to buy this latest James Bond game or those who have already taken the plunge and done so already, which is quite a few people as the game has already sold more than a million copies as previously mentioned in this article. And these could be the first of many to enjoy playing as agent 007 as it seems that 007 First Light could end up being one of the biggest games of the year no doubt.