PS Store Sales Charts: Horizon Forbidden West Plays Second Fiddle to Elden Ring

Honestly I'm glad to see Elden Ring and Forbidden West doing so well. They're both really good games.

I wonder if Horizon 3 will release around the same time as a massively popular game too🤣

Glad to see both are doing well.

I'm guess we may never know the " Sold this many millions in 3 days" figures. Maybe that was just a fad 🤷🏾‍♂️

I kind of love that they can't brag that their own game took the #1 spot on the PS Store this month. I really like HFW, but the lack of the usual fanfare in these monthly posts made me laugh.

Can’t wait for Horizon 3 to be announced, that’ll probably mean Metroid Prime 4 will finally release the same week 😂

HZD launched 2-3 days before BotW which compeletely stole it's spotlight and HFW launched one week before Elden Ring which completely stole it's spotlight.

I feel almost bad for them. Almost.

@nessisonett Or maybe even BOTW 2, Suicide Squad, TES 6, The Witcher 4, Doom 6 or GTA 6

@PenguinL Only played Demon's Souls before but stopped after 10h since I didn't like the checkpoint system. But Elden Ring is so much more accessible to newcomers thanks to regular checkpoints and it's open world. If you feel like you are to weak for one place just go to another

Horizon is really unlucky. half expecting Horizon 3 to come out the same week as something like Elder Scrolls VI or GTA VI.

@kyleforrester87 Valve will remember how to count to 3 thanks to Horizon.

Hmph I expected HFW to be first on a PS sales chart. 40hrs+ on both games and I still can't say one is better than the other. For now I'd say ER is definitely From's best game, yeah I'd take it over Bloodborne. I mean I just found a rusted ship anchor as a weapon, ER has everything!

I just beat elden ring I got to say it was a amazing game.

Both phenomenal games. Finished Horizon a couple days ago and finally continued my Astrologer's journey through Limgrave yesterday. Completely different styled games that are at the pinnacle of excellence for their respective genres.

According to NPD Horizon outsold Elden Ring on PlayStation in America (physical+digital) so it must’ve been very close if it lost on PSN.

This is a bizarre rivalry. Even more when this site is both downplaying and encouraging it.

who ever at Sony thought it was a good idea to release these games so close to each other... if horizon was dropping this week it would be better for the conversation.

@Voltan PSN is units, NPD is dollar sales. HFW generates more revenue from same number of sales.

I wonder if the GRR Martin part drew in fans of the books/TV series. I'm quite surprised at eldens rings performance. I also wonder how many people knew what they were in for and are not rage quitting haha. Although I've found this game much easier than previous Fromsoft games. Playing Elden Ring and Horizon at same time is really making this perhaps my favourite gaming month in recent memory and I added GT7 on top of that.

@PenguinL I bought the PS4 disc version of Horizon:FW for $60.00 and upgraded to PS5 version for free.

I am curious why Japan is excluded from the source blog post. Sony is battling the optics of not caring about Japan, but so many subtle things just keep adding up.

@ChrisDeku Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense.

@TheCollector316 Japan represents something like 4% of PlayStation division revenues and its a primarily Physical media country. On PSN it's probably like 1%. The country is basically irrelevant for anyone not making broad family friendly casual games on mobile devices.

@LN78 Funnily enough I checked a local CEX last weekend and there wasn't a single copy of Elden Ring. Obviously this isn't evidence that it's not being traded in elsewhere, but still, I was quite shocked.

I really can't stop playing Elden Ring. When I'm not playing it I'm always thinking about it. Haven't felt like this with a game since Persona 5. Very happy for From they deserve the love they are getting!

@Korgon
That's awesome. I am like that with Destiny 2 currently. I haven't felt like this since my World of Warcraft days (that ended five years ago).

@PenguinL I would say go with a mage for Elden Ring if it is your first one. And due to this being so open world, check online for the best spell locations and weapons for mages as most don't require you to really beat anything, but rather run ahead and past enemies to grab them or just do a simple quest. You can then do slow leveling but with better spells and before you know it you'll be doing great. You will have to learn that dodge and roll system though as even at higher levels some of the enemies in Elden Ring hit real hard. Hope you have fun.

From my experience.

Horizon is a 9.

Elden Ring is a 7.5. Sekiro is easily FromSoft’s best game. ER is a step back and off to the side in comparison. I’m a souls fan, but ER doesn’t seem to be anything special so far to me. It’s high blind praise is really surprising to me.

@Netret0120 it will...itself.

@mariomaster96 I almost feel bad for how dumb you're statement is. almost.

@PenguinL recommend horizon. it's way more accessible and there's way less of a chance you will never finish it or get bored of it.

@OmegaStriver That's interesting, I feel the exact opposite. I found Sekiro to be somewhat overrated despite the fact that I really enjoyed it. I thought "out of all of FromSoftware's games throughout the years THIS is the one that's getting all the recognition?" Elden Ring on the other hand I understand the praise for completely. It feels like the culmination of everything From has done up until now. It's a natural evolution of Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro's gameplay

@middyone Why? Both Horizon games have launched just a few days before one of the highest ratest games of all time released.
Haven't really seen people talking much about HFW since the release of Elden Ring and the same happend to HZD

@mariomaster96 I wouldn't feel so bad for Horizon, the first one is at 20 millions sales and counting and I assume at least 80% of them are on Playstation while the rest is the new PC release.

If you want to compare, that's twice as much as Dark Souls 3, which only sold 10 millions and released on more platforms.

I think in the end, HFW will have the much bigger sales numbers and it released on 2 platforms while Elden Ring released on 5.

I only wonder how many people bought Elden Ring purely based on its score, and couldn't get past Limgrave.

I'm sure if it was a PlayStation game, people would be rioting now. But oh well... Double standards everywhere.

I don't get the appeal of Elden Ring, at all.

G.R.R.M no longer has any appeal to me. 5 years ago I would've treated this game like it was the second coming of Christ, but not any more. GRRM and GoT lost its shine.

The Dark Souls games have never appealed to me. I've always thought they were hard because they were poorly made.

I do not like the random messages left by, basically, idiots, that appear in all the games. It's immersion breaking (similar idea in Death Stranding, didn't like that either).

This feels like Halo or Avatar. Something that's actually really, really mediocre but overhyped into being popular.

@mariomaster96 so? tons of games do that but you only single out horizon because you want to make it seem like it's getting stomped on something. on the contrary...it's not. not in the slightest as it sold as much as botw and sold more than every souls game ever made as a new ip. let that sink in. it will be fine lol trust me. they are talking about horizon. I've seen it all over. funny enough i've rarely seen people talk about elden ring except when calling out the fanboys. you not seeing people talk about horizon has as much to do to do with the actual majority as me not hearing people talk about elden ring much.

@XOF facts lol. these fanboys actually think their game franchise went from being niche to mainstream over night but the reality is that most people bought it for the hype and will either return it or never complete it. it is what it is.

@middyone idk about the fanboys or whatever. I'm a die-hard Souls/Borne fan and have played all of them (except Demon's Souls).

And I'm about 95 hours into Elden Ring. What baffles me is... Everyone's talking about it. I'm glad FromSoft is getting the attention they deserve but at same time I don't understand why. Elden Ring doesn't do anything any different than Dark Souls 3 did. In terms of difficulty, it's harder. Graphics has never been a focus (and Demon's Souls on PS5 still didn't get this much attention despite how it looks, so it's not graphics), more than half the animations in the game are recycled from Dark Souls 3 (and no, that's not bad thing if it reduces production time and cost), level design isn't THAT different from Dark Souls. It's open world, but it is nothing like formulaic/mainstream open worlds. I just don't understand how anyone could like this game and not Dark Souls 3.

@MattBoothDev you do realise you can play offline and not see any messages (which are usually left to assist players) from "idiots" like me, right?

We get it, you don't like soulsborne games. If that's the case then why feel the need to tell everyone?

Anyway Elden Ring is incredible and there's no way GG could have predicted its success. HFW is gonna sell by the bucketload for years, no need to worry. Aloy isn't going anywhere.

@Johnnycide I didn't know that, but that doesn't fix my issue with FromSoftware's games anyway.

Are you going to deny that some of the messages are just random bollocks?

I will keep talking about Dark Souls games and Elden Ring on topics about... Dark Souls games and Elden Ring. That's not unusual.

Why do people still take negative comments about a game they like as a personal attack against them? It's not about you, buddy. Don't worry!

@XOF I mean depends on where you're at and what topics you follow because i haven't see alot of people talk about it besides a small gaming bubble on twitter where we know that it doesn't represent the majority of all at all. everywhere else few reviews here and there but not really. happy for fromsoft but I agree. i've heard alot of souls veterans say that...if you've played all the other games or have seen it...it's not that different. people try to say it's the fully unique thing but it's dark souls 4 but open world lol. yea I saw the animations were the same...I don't mind it but it's irritating when people say it's unique and refuse to see that. all I see the open world does different is it tells you nothing lol unless i'm missing something.

@PenguinL Good to know! Cheers!

@bimboliquido I am really stumped by this whole idea that Elden Ring is ONLY getting all this attention because of hype and GRR Martin connection not on it own merits or the good will which From has steadily cultivated with each release. Cyberpunk received the same due to the good will garnered from Witcher 3 but unfortunately they screwed the pooch there. Now From on the other hand has (imo) lived up to the hype. Instead of gamers being happy about that a certain section wanna complain about how it doesn’t deserve this praise???!?? People be crazy…

Good to see a game like this up there in the sales charts well done to the whole team at FromSoft have a well deserved sake on me. To the fools!

Yet another example of this PlayStation website being more interested in "pushing" Elden Ring than a great PlayStation exclusive. Really no need to say "Horizon Forbidden West Plays Second Fiddle". Elden Ring was #1. Just say it was.

I'm not trying to start an argument. Just stating a fact on what I've seen on here since they've both released, and there's nothing wrong with pointing it out. If it wasn't for the patches that they have thankfully released for Horizon Forbidden West, it would almost be like it never came out if you go by this site.

@velio84 I think the rumor is that BluePoint are making Bloodborne 2. I think we’ll be waiting a long time now, since PS5 has had 2 FromSoft Soulsborne games back to back.

@Th3solution You never know though. It's not like Sony is great about spreading things out at the moment, having three exclusives releasing in a little over a month's time (counting Ghostwire Tokyo). Maybe not having anything until God of War Ragnarok afterwards qualifies.

Seriously though, I would expect that to be a while. Who knows how long it's been in development.

The gulf in quality between these two games is quite large and apparent to me. I dunno what everyone is on about with it even being close.

@KilloWertz Yeah, Sony has historically had some problems with releasing their games at optimal times. I’ve never understood why release schedules often don’t allow their titles ‘room to breathe’ before dropping something else to cannibalize their other product.

If I ruled the world, I’d have released GT7 and HFW a little further away from each other and from ER. I know the three games are different genres and technically not competing for the same gamer, but we can see here that loads of people are playing all three, or had to chose which one to get first.

I realize that sometimes these things are out of the publishers’ control, since the game may not be ready at the optimal timeframe, but still, it seems like these things drop on top of one another pretty often. Several jokes already about HZD and BotW, and it also happened with other games getting overshadowed. I never understood why big budget games avoid the summer months for release when there tends to be a lull. Everyone goes for the October release so they can go up against COD, Battlefield, FIFA, and NBA2K? Forspoken just did this. Went from a May date to an October one. I guess the logic is getting there close to Black Friday for Christmas, but I’m not sure it’s worth it for most games.

@Th3solution I'd say Horizon Forbidden West is close enough to Elden Ring, at least the fact that they are both open world RPGs. Regardless, releasing that and Gran Turismo 7 close together was a bit puzzling. Like you said, they are very different games, but any temptation for me to buy GT7 went out the window since I wouldn't be able to play it and HFW. I don't feel it would make sense to play GT7 just here and there while playing HFW, at least for me, as there's plenty to do in it and it would just make it more likely I'd never finish it like I never have with any Gran Turismo game.

After it's great State of Play, I was really tempted to buy my first Gran Turismo game since GT5, but maybe I will get it at some point down the road when I can actually give it proper attention.

As for the summer months, maybe @velio84 is right, but there has to be some games that released in the summer that actually sold really well. I'm not going to bother looking it up, but you would think the lack of competition would help regardless of whether people are more out and about or not.

Forspoken would likely have done better in the summer months if it would have been done in time, as October is another time when it could get overshadowed if Gotham Knights turns out to be on the level of the Batman Arkham games. Then who knows when God of War Ragnarok will come out. It could be the same month, or in November (I'd be shocked if it was as late as December, but you never know). Despite so many writing off Forspoken well before it comes out or had even shown much, it'd be a shame if it turned out to be really good and gets overshadowed because of a poor release date. Horizon Forbidden West will be fine in the end since Zero Dawn sold really well despite an awful release date, but Forspoken likely won't get so lucky with it being a new third party IP that has gotten written off by some already.

Personally, I couldn't care less for Elden. Really loving Horizon!

@TheCollector316 Japan has a different PS blog website. The linked blog is only for NA and EU.

Loving Elden Ring, I'll get to Horizon eventually.

Look forward to seeing GTAV in the PS5 list from next month....

I still don't understand how Elden is selling THAT well. It's a hyper-niche genre from a one-trick pony studio. It's modern Ghosts n' Goblins. I don't mean to say it's bad, or not their best game, but it's just not a game for the masses in any way, and I'm not sure how this time the marketing hype caught onto the masses. It's bizarre that it's outselling a "made for mainstream" game like Horizon, while Horizon is a sequel.