The #1 Most Popular Game
No Man’s Sky, ‘The #1 Most Popular Game,’ of all time.
That’s my goal with NMS, “an infinite universe in a mobile app,” available for download on the Apple and Android app stores. Why? Because almost everyone has a smartphone: “Space? There’s an app for that!”
Of course, bringing NMS to a mobile app would be hard work, but having now brought it to Nintendo Switch and even Apple iPad as of Autumn 2022, I think the hardest part of that hard work is now over. So my speculations for 5.0 is NMS coming to smartphones Summer or Autumn 2023 or 2024. After all, with each big number change (2.0, 3.0, 4.0), NMS has always came to a new platform, and what other platform do we have left? Stadia. Otherwise, no other platform would ensure maximum accessibility, quite like mobile.
No Man’s Sky has sold 10 million+ units since launch as per official product description, (GameStop listing of Nintendo Switch; See also the Reddit discussion). According to Wikipedia, the best-selling video game to date is Minecraft, having sold 238 million copies across all platforms, and NMS has almost made ‘The Top 50 List,’ and no doubt will sometime within the next few years. That list starts around 23 million.
30 million would put NMS in the top 20. – 40M? Top 15. 45M? Top 10. 75M? Top 5.
See Wikipedia for ‘The Top 50 List’…
But mobile only holds one key 
to ensuring NMS achieves maximum popularity. 
For the other key, we have to look at what draws people to other games, and most especially other space games, but all games holding player’s attention, really. We have to look at what player’s likes and dislikes are, for this game and all other games. We then ‘bucket list’ many of those needs and wants, and prioritize all such accordingly.
Maximizing platforms, and answering many of those needs and wants, guarantees an increase in popularity. Granted, in the process of “trying to make everyone happy,” we have to be careful not to alienate long-term preexisting players, thus not making everyone happy. But, you will never make everyone happy, (I know it’s hard to digest that, but it’s true), you will merely settle into a happy balance, and everyone will settle into that happy balance with you. Will everyone be happy? No, but close enough to achieve a happy balance.
I think it is important to recognize that early on, (ex. what makes you happy, may not be what makes me happy?) However, NMS has a few advantages, such as Custom Settings and Procedural, (ex. the ability to make some star systems and planets play different than others), which can cater to different playstyles.
Strategizing maximum popularity is challenging. There’s so many different playstyles, and wants and needs, and there’s accessibility, and then there’s functionality. So maximize balance and you maximize popularity.
Questions for consideration: Why is Minecraft #1? Why are the others #2? Why are these not #1? Minecraft features a bunch of voxelated cubes, and Tetris at #3 barely offers a few pixelated squares. No Man’s Sky offers everything and then some, and with the latest tech, highest resolutions and quality standards. So…
#1
Once there, how do we expand beyond?
Humans start populating other real-life galaxies and transmitting data via ‘god-waves’ (an unapproachable light beyond the highest levels of the UV spectrum; 
“figured that out myself, lol”), which moves faster than ‘light-waves’ (faster than the speed of light) and safely does so without a one-point universe explosion.
We achieve an instant data transfer on intergalactic scales, (and preferably bending spacetime for an instant physical transfer, if not an instant alien-human bodily ascension), and we start transmitting NMS into the hands of other alien-human lifeforms. Alas, we haven’t quite figured all that out yet, but we’ll get there God willing. If we keep passing around the superformula, we’ll soon shift from our plans of world domination, to…
“Our plans of taking over the universe.”
Until then, we have continued with our theme of getting closer to the Atlas. Each yearly ‘major update’ has presented a book-cover featuring the Atlas coming closer into view. It started with the initial release of NMS, continued clear through Atlas Rises and would appear to have ended with Waypoint – and yet Waypoint is merely ‘another point along the way.’ It is as Sean always says, “Our journey continues!”
No, in truth, I think we are still getting closer to the Atlas, for, “How have we arrived at what is infinite, when its own infinite gameplay progression, is a broken concept of what should be infinite?” 
So we take a moment to consider the Atlas Path, and only then do we return to our plans of world domination.
Consider our theme of getting closer to the Atlas…
After we complete the Atlas Path questline, of reaching the center of the galaxy, or otherwise birthing a new star: “Why does the Atlas then become silent, or satisfied, as if we’ve reached our final endgame purpose?”
Atlas Path
I think a better approach would be for the Atlas Path to then motion us along an infinite gameplay loop of traveling to the next galaxy, or otherwise birthing another new star. “Galaxy Progression & Birthing New Stars,” should be NMS’s take on gameplay progression. It’s how you “level-up,” so to speak. Why? Because the Atlas is pretty much the closest equivalent to a god-like deity we have in the game, and the Atlas’ purpose is to create, to maintain and to motion us along, on our soul-seeking journey through new stars and new life.
What is the reward for reaching a new galaxy? Each time it is done – through a certain number of numerous warps, or less black hole jumps, or through a combination thereof, not save edits or portal cheats – you level-up, you reach another level, a number visualized beside each player’s name, it tics up (like ‘Crimsontine +2’).
So we need a benefit (or a reward) for leveling-up. Should we become more invincible? I don’t think so, our technology upgrades already do that. Decorations? No, something meaningful and substantial. Since our other purpose with the Atlas is to birth new stars, meaning to birth entire star-systems into existence…
“What if for each new galaxy level-up, we receive another star-system to claim, as our own?”
“Increase the Challenge?” On-foot, we also have to reach and return from a ‘mirrorverse underworld’ -{(a frightening place where everything’s out to get you)}- through an ‘inverted tower portal,’ there being only 2 per planet and on opposite sides of the planet, where upon doing so we come to obtain a most valuable item, something that allows us to claim another star system, so long as we’ve leveled-up. But leveling-up also increases our standing with the Atlas, meaning we could level-down, (even ‘-2’). This could be a use for a…
Station Override
Perhaps that’s what we receive and what is required for its usage, and how we obtain more and come to claim even more star systems. Of course, this could just be one idea of many, but I must say, it sure does fit well with galaxy progression, birthing stars and all those other concepts I wrote about, 
years ago…