Since its release back in July of this year, many have proclaimed Psyonix's addictive Rocket League as the "surprise hit of the year," with the title seemingly coming out of nowhere but becoming one of the biggest success stories of 2015, as a new report from The Wall Street Journal shed a little more light on the game's success.

In a report from The Wall Street Journal, Psyonix shared more details on Rocket League's success and, in particular, the studio's more concerted efforts to raise awareness of the title based on the results of its predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, which originally released in 2008 on PS3 but failed to gather a significant audience.

Where SARPBC had a devoted fanbase but little-to-no-marketing, The Wall Street Journal's report detailed that Psyonix's drive to raise awareness for the game certainly seems like it paid off, as Rocket League has "raked in nearly $50 million in revenue and amassed more than 8 million registered players" since releasing for PS4 and PC this past July.

In contrast, the game was made on a budget of "a little less than $2 million" over the course of two years, as Psyonix worked on it steadily between contract jobs on major AAA titles such as Mass Effect 3 and the Gears of War series.

The Wall Street Journal detailed that a major part of Psyonix's strategy to bring awareness of Rocket League to a larger audience was to "get it into as many hands as possible," with the game's release through Sony's PlayStation Plus service providing "millions" of downloads of the game to users, along with providing copies of the game to notable YouTube and Twitch personalities to help promote the title.

Rocket League is currently available on PS4 and PC, with the game to launch on Xbox One next year.