Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was released almost 10 years ago, but it has recently been seeing an uptick of new players due to a related meme involving one of its characters, Jetstream Sam, stroking his chin and thinking.
Samuel Rodrigues, or Jetstream Sam, is a character from PlatinumGames’ 2013 spinoff Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. He’s recently been seeing an uptick in popularity as a meme online.
According to Playtracker, the Jetstream Sam meme went viral early this year, and this coincided with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance seeing an increase in popularity. The game’s concurrent player numbers went from an average of between 300 and 800 players in 2021 to about 2000 players on average in January 2022.
Additionally, across all platforms the game was released on, achievement unlocking activity has been spiking and is at its highest since 2018, indicating that more people are indeed playing through the game. Steamcharts has shown that there has been growth in the game’s player base in the past two months.
Although it is almost 10 years old, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is seeing numbers it hasn’t seen since launch.
📈 concurrent players up 1000%
🏆 peak in achievement activity across all platformsThe cause? Various meme templates featuring characters from the game went viral. pic.twitter.com/Ey6FmYAXJp
— PlayTracker (@PlayTrackerNet) May 23, 2022
The Jetstream Sam meme is an ironic one. People would caption it with an utterly ridiculous statement, and in the gif, Jetstream Sam would stroke his chin, contemplating actually considering it. The game’s political setting and over-the-top characters have inspired many memes, including ones involving its main antagonist, the conservative right-wing Senator Armstrong.
One of the characters, Monsoon, even has a whole villainous speech about the concept of memes in the game, declaring them as “the DNA of the soul.”
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance first launched on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in February 2013. It came to PC in January 2014. The game is also backward compatible on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
In our Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance review, we said, “Rising’s troubles are rarely enough to derail the incredible momentum of an always-entertaining, action-oriented Metal Gear spinoff. Whether or not you have ever enjoyed Metal Gear, this is a must for anyone who appreciates melee-combat.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey