Summary
- Elden Ring sold almost 29 million units, surpassing the entire Dark Souls franchise sales pre-Elden Ring.
- The game has now outsold Super Mario Odyssey, GTA 4, San Andreas, and Pokemon Sword and Shield.
- Elden Ring’s mainstream impact on the Soulsborne genre has been impressive, leading FromSoftware to develop a spin-off game, Nightreign.
Elden Ring was a cultural phenomenon. Changing the formula drastically from its previous release, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, FromSoftware’s latest title was a critical and commercial behemoth, scoring a 95 on OpenCritic and 96 on Metacritic.
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Bandai Namco, the game’s publisher, recently released the game’s sales figures, showing just how successful it was. The latest data shows the game eclipsed the entire Dark Souls franchise’s sales figures pre-Elden Ring.
Elden Ring Sells Almost 29 Million Units
It was recently confirmed that, as of September 2024, Elden Ring had sold 28.6 million units. That makes it the 28th best-selling video game of all time— not bad for a game developed by a company that historically made relatively niche titles.
As of its latest figures, Elden Ring has now sold more than Super Mario Odyssey, Grand Theft Auto: 4 and San Andreas, and Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Arguably, what’s most impressive is not the games that it has now outsold from other developers, but the impact that it’s had on the Soulsborne/Soulslike genre.
According to analyst Daniel Ahmad, prior to Elden Ring’s release, the Dark Souls franchise, comprised of Dark Souls 1, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3, had sold 27 million units since it launched in 2011. This means that in two and a half years, Elden Ring eclipsed 13 years of franchise sales.
It’s not overly surprising, given the mainstream focus Elden Ring received versus the niche appeal of Dark Souls, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
Interestingly, the Dark Souls franchise has now reportedly sold over 39 million units, suggesting that Elden Ring has caused a significant uplift in sales to players curious about the genre’s origins.
It was recently confirmed that FromSoftware wasn’t working on a sequel to Elden Ring, instead focusing on a mixture of other Soulsborne and non-Soulsborne games, sparking fears that the game was a one-and-done scenario. However, at this year’s Game Awards, FromSoftware revealed Elden Ring: Nightreign. Nightreign is a three-player roguelike-style spin-off of Elden Ring, which features a Fortnite-style shrinking circle and a bunch of returning Souls bosses and will see players try to survive The Lands Between for three treacherous nights. What a time to be a FromSoft fan.
With worldbuilding from Game of Thrones scribe George R.R. Martin and developed by FromSoftware, Elden Ring is a masterpiece in what has become known as the ‘Soulslike’ genre of action role-playing games.