Although Souls games developed by FromSoftware is not everyone’s cup of tea thanks to the difficulty gap to play said titles, the industry does appreciate each release that comes from the Japanese developer when periodically administered. With Elden Ring, an unprecedented amount of excitement grew for the game ahead of its release and even with a delay to February, that anticipation continued to swell.
But now with the game out, how is it performing? Well, it is most likely the best-selling release so far for 2022. From Gamesindustry.biz head Chris Dring, he reported that Elden Ring shattered records in the United Kingdom besting the performance of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Cyberpunk 2077, and even toppling purchase records disregarding Call of Duty/FIFA since the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018.
“t sold 2.5x the amount of copies of last week’s hit Horizon: Forbidden West. Just under 70% of all copies sold were downloaded. Over 84% of Xbox sales were digital. PlayStation sales were just over 50% digital.” Adding, “Overall, PS5/PS4 accounted for 41% of sales, PC accounted for 30% and Xbox accounted for 29%.”
Namely, Elden Ring stands to set a new milestone set by Bungie’s Destiny since its release in 2014: best-selling IP to ship in the U.K., Dring shares in a separate tweet.
I think Elden Ring is the best-selling new IP in the UK since Destiny back in 2014… unless I'm forgetting something.
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) March 4, 2022
Additionally, NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella goes on to report that Elden Ring is single-handedly the most sold game so far for 2022. “Elden Ring debuted as both the best-selling game of February 2022 as well as 2022 YTD. Launch month sales of Elden Ring were the 2nd highest for any tracked title released in the past 12 months, trailing only Call of Duty: Vanguard, released in Nov 2021,” he wrote in the thread.
“After 1 month in market, Elden Ring ranked as the 5th best-selling game of the 12 month period ending February 2022. Elden Ring ranked 1st on Steam and Xbox platforms in February, while placing 2nd on PlayStation.” Although Elden Ring is the overall better selling game, it stands at #2 on PlayStation against Horizon Forbidden West which is unique to the platform.
In our review for the game, critic Michael Merchant summarizes his review-in-progress stating, “Elden Ring has quickly become one of my favorite games of all time!. […] I am not exaggerating that fact. It has all the best elements of my favorite games in one package.” You can read the full piece by heading here.
Are you surprised by the performance of Elden Ring’s release?
Elden Ring is out now for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.