Elden Ring has, at this point, become something of a force of nature, a breakout mainstream hit from notoriously hardcore Japanese developer FromSoftware. The open-world RPG continues to go from strength to strength and has just passed another massive sales milestone, having sold more than 20 million copies since it launched in February 2022.
We learned of the impressive figure in a translated earnings report from publisher Bandai Namco (thanks ResetEra). For comparison, the entire Dark Souls trilogy (including all of its subsequent re-releases and remasters) only amounts to a combined 33 million copies sold, and even that feat took more than a decade.
With the eagerly anticipated release of the expansion Shadow of the Erdtree on the horizon, we imagine Elden Ring will manage to ship a few more million units before everything is said and done. Are you surprised by the breakout success of this notoriously tough title? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source resetera.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 37
Removed - trolling/baiting
As it should, Fromsoft has gotten so much success it deserved since Dark Souls 1.
@VaultGuy415 Considering you have clicked on the article I would say you care quite a bit lol.
@VaultGuy415 Elden Ring doesn't replace Zelda, and Zelda doesn't replace Elden Ring. They're both different in their own unique ways
20 mill is super impressive! Considering how far down the latter FromSoft started in the 90's, they're practicality as big and important as a Ubisoft, Activision, Sega, Sony, EA, Xbox, and Nintendo
@VaultGuy415 - I largely disagree with that statement on many levels!
Elden Ring was (and continues to be) an incredible game in many ways, and FromSoftware achieved a remarkable feat in managing to make their IP as 'accessible' as possible for the mainstream/newcomers whilst still appealing to their core audience. I played ER at launch, and it was a phenomenal experience. My personal 2022 GOTY...
As well as being a huge FromSoft fan (Sekiro one of my favorite games of all time) I am also very much into Zelda/Nintendo... and kicked off playing TotK this weekend. TotK , as well as its predecessor, is a fantastic game. Perhaps it is more 'evolution' instead of 'revolution', but nonetheless it builds very strongly on the previous formula and introduces a great sandbox environment with updated mechanics. A few frame-rate drops aside, it is an immaculate game and a fine example of Nintendo doing what they do best (FR drops expected, this game really pushes the Switch to its limits...)
To say that the release of TotK makes ER irrelevant is so.... wrong? It is entirely possible to love both games (As I do) or just one of them, or neither.... but to say that ER no longer has a place in the conversation since the release of TotK is pretty unjustified. I'd argue that if you were to combine the best elements of these games and merge, you'd have one hell of a product.
TLDR - Both games, ER and TotK, are fantastic. One does not make the other obsolete.... With FF16 on the horizon as well, plus Starfield, its a great time to be a gamer. (Hoping FF16 and SF land successfully, few concerns on the latter but hopefully Bethedsa pull through)
@CJD87 pssssst. Just a heads up, the fanboy was trolling.
That's impressive, congrats for fromsoftware and bamco, can't wait for new armored core š
Well-deserved. An amazing game and I can't wait for the DLC.
@KundaliniRising333 Yeah I know mate, I just canāt resist feeding sometimes!
I'm a Playstation fanboy. I regard my Switch as a disappointment. Just 2 great games in 6 years, plus MH Rise (but I'd wish I waited for the PC or PS5 version).
I completed Elden Ring and I've only scratched the surface of TOTK. But it already seems like Zelda is the game of the decade, while ER was an overhyped mess (especially compared to its excellent predecessors, I even love DS2).
Special shoutout to the map tower cutscenes in TOTK which seem inspired by Horizon's tallnecks.
Well deserved for this utter masterpiece. Take it to the next level and make open world Bloodborne, From. Its a crime such a game doesn't exist yet
Open world Bloodborne is an awful idea imho. After DeS PS5 and Elden Ring, I'd prefer to see Bluepoint carry the series forward
I also see ER and TotK as competitors, competitors for time. While many people here on gaming websites spend an enormous amount of hours in playing video games, most people out there canāt afford this; at least, I canāt. Itās a too big commitment for me to invest 80+ hours in one game, sitting in front of the family TV. On the other hand, sitting on the sofa and playing Zelda for 80+ hours while the others watch TV is possible. Thatās the real benefit of mobile gaming! And no, I donāt want to play Elden Ring with PSVR2 cinema mode.
Elden ring sits in my top 10 games of all time. I've enjoyed every from game so far apart from dark souls 2 which whilst not crap just was no where near as good as the others. Interested to see how armoured core turns out. I dont see how anyone can compare zelda to elden ring as they are very different beasts..i would play zelda in a heartbeat if i had a switch but i dont so i guess its immortals fenix rising as i see that as a similar game.
Still not a huge fan of Elden Ring - I much prefer the more linear design and interconnected world of Bloodborne and dark souls. I'm very happy people loved this game, but I'd like for from software to develop both the open world style and the linear style games. The huge success of Elden Ring worries me, because I can see future souls-like games purely being open world, which would be such a shame!
Sony should have kept the From Software relationship going, but they don't seem very interested at all in Japanese studios since Hulst. Sony needs a big first party dark fantasy game imo, not some live service tosh.
This is good - a huge, well designed open world where everything feels meaningful, including side content. I hope others take note!
Going into 2022, I was certain that either Forbidden West or Ragnarok would be my GOTY. While both lived up to and exceeded my expectations, Elden Ring was easily my favorite and most-played game of the year. I platinumed both the PS5 and PS4 versions within 3 months, that's how much I enjoyed it. Though I did use Save Wizard...
From has been making gems since King's Field 1, and they are probably my favorite developer. I'm quite surprised that ER has garnered so much mainstream success, but I am very glad to see it!
Can we at least agree that Horizon and AC are awful?
N.i.c.e. elden is a instant classic.word up son
Elden Ring deserves to be huge. It's one of the best games of all times.
Not a popular opinion,(especially in this thread), but never gotten too far into the Soulsborne Series,though I'm in the minority much like Zelda bores me but loved Alundra & HZD!š
Anyway,what i do find ironic is Elden Ring has been used as the absolute poster child by XB fan boys against God of War Ragnarok getting GOTY (when not only both have their fans,& are great games),like it was an Xbox exclusive & yet the irony here proves that for all hype about gamepass, make a good game & PS punters will vote with their wallets & owning/buying a good solid classic will always top a so-so rental sub.
200 hours. And it changed the way I play games. Glorious. And the fact that it's only Zelda TotK that's been able to match the absolute wonder I felt with ER, shows how the landscape has changed. Games can be great still, yes, but there's a little added something in ER that others can lack. And it doesn't matter if a game is easy, hard, big budget, Independent, graphically perfect or a bit janky, just aim for the sense of wonder of these games and you'll do good.
@Ravix I think you got it spot on there- not about (just) production values, jank, tone or graphics- which can all vary immensely- but that sense of wonder. ER was my game of last year, and one of very few games that have had me glued to it and still enjoying, after 200 hours. No doubt I'd feel similarly for BOTW or TOTK... but I don't have a switch, so can't compare. But fond memories of Windwaker and OoT confirm that for me.
I'd be surprised if Hogwarts Legacy didn't eventually go on to beat ER lifetime sales. That said for a FromSoft game 20 mil in less than 18 months is very impressive. No longer is FromSoft just for the hardcore gamers only or niche anymore, its now the norm mainstream in gaming
I will likely never play this game but I think the serves to prove, that day 1 streaming hurts far more than it helps.
I didn't love it as much as some people did, but I do think it was a massive step in the right direction for From Software, and a top five game of 2022 overall.
Really hoping they continue in this direction in the future.
I can't figure out how much of these sales were from people really playing the game and how much was everyone buying it because everybody else seemed to be buying it. I think it's a very good game, I think it deserved all it's GOTY attention, and it was my GOTY pick across the board. I'm someone that hates soulsborne, but managed to get sucked into Elden Ring for a while, the first Soulsborne game to actually pull me in. The overall structure reminded me a ton of Zelda 1, which, obviously, I have a fondness of. But only for a while before I lost interest again. The frequent high-stakes death still makes the game kind of niche and not for the masses. I can't imagine a lot of the people that bought into the hype had a great experience with it and would readily buy a sequel. It's kind of a strange game in terms of sales, because I can't shake the feeling it sold way more volume than its natural player audience really is. Not a knock on the game at all, just a mismatch between what the game is, who it's for, and what it's sales look like.
@Heavy_Artilery
Nope
@NEStalgia I agree with you and disagree with you because of one thing you said, āThis is the first Soulsborne that sucked me in.ā I think you, me, and millions of others that either were meh about the genre, critical of it, or got bored of it were drawn into the folds of Elden Ring. For me, I loathed the Souls games. I used to comment about how Demonās Souls was the first game Iād ever actually returned when people would talk about Souls games and that I also returned Dark Souls. Elden Ring changed my mind in a profound way. Not only did I love Elden Ring, but it allowed me the time to hone my skills to where I could enjoy the other games in the Souls genre, so I did make a second shot at Demonās Souls, which was much better than I ever realized. I think thereās a trend of gamers that felt this way. I do think a lot of people also bought the game on the hype and just fiddled with it a bit too. I know plenty of people that didnāt finish it and plenty of people that couldnāt finish it, of course. But also it feels like it was the game that literally everyone I knew that plays games (outside my āSwitch onlyā people, of course) was playing at a certain point. The saturation level of Elden Ring was something Iād only seen with Call of Duty (a couple times), Pubg, BotW, and Halo in the days when Halo was peaked.
@somnambulance Yeah, but I still think a lot of people bought on hype and curiosity, fiddled with it but probably wouldn't buy another. I mean I played some hours but basically lost interest pretty fast. I can appreciate it for what it is, and I adore the Zelda 1 vibes that it does even better than botw does. Its definitely a good game but still a niche that the sales numbers seem much larger than. I'll surely never actually bother completing it myself. Too much of a slog, but I can see what's special about it despite that
I bought it on day one, which I don't often do these days, but I thought I'd take a punt on it being good. I'll probably never part with my copy.
@NEStalgia I dunno. I think Iām the opposite. Iām paying attention to whatever FromSoftware does now, whereas before I just thought they were the worldās largest overhyped niche developer. I can admit I was wrong and will look forward to anything they release in the future. I jumped into Demonās Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne after Elden Ring. Still need to do Sekiro. Iāll admit Iām still sort of iffy on the genre in total though. After plowing through a few Soulsborne titles, Iām sure my list would offend the diehards. Iād imagine the next one will still sell fairly well, though weāll see how the DLC sells. I mean, Dark Souls 3 sold $10 mil, so I mean, thatās a decent number too.
@Heavy_Artilery why do we all have to agree? If thatās how you feel thatās how you feel. You donāt need others alongside you for validation.
I will always be terrible at playing these games, but despite that can still understand why they're so mega popular.
Happy for the fans and I hope Armored Core can be nearly as successful.
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