Some of you may have heard of a little thing called Elden Ring, a game that launched late last week. Actually, it's probably a lot of you, especially here in the UK. According to digital and physical data supplied by GSD, Elden Ring is the biggest non-COD, non-FIFA launch, since Red Dead Redemption 2.
Rockstar's latest epic released way back in 2018, so yeah, it's safe to say Elden Ring has gotten off to a flyer. FromSoftware's new effort, Elden Ring, tops both the digital-only and the combined sales charts for the week ending February 26th.
You can't say it's not had the proper competition either. February has been absolutely stacked with game releases, including Dying Light 2 and Horizon: Forbidden West. Elden Ring sold 2.5x what Horizon did during this sales week.
The figures also highlight how much the Xbox player base goes digital. Almost 85% of Elden Ring's UK sales on Xbox were digital, compared with just over 50% on PlayStation platforms. That probably explains the huge platform sales gulf discovered earlier this week.
Have you been enjoying Elden Ring during its first week on the market? Let us know below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 8
I find this quite surprising tbh considering FromSoftware games aren’t the most accessible and are known for their difficulty.
@uptownsoul
Looking at the numbers for PS consoles, Elden Ring sold just over 2.5% more on that platform than Horizon FW did on launch week.
Still shocked that Elden Ring is the biggest UK launch outside of COD and FIFA since RDR 2 back in 2019. Crazy.
Still can't believe a Souls game
85% was digital on xbox. That's a pretty big headline
Yeah and I wonder how many actual knew about its difficulty and already gave up
I'm surprised by this considering the ultra-hard ultra-niche nature of Souls. I wonder how many just bought in because of marketing and internet hype without having a clue what the game actually is? I can't picture the masses just diving into Souls and having fun with it.
@uptownsoul
Two things we need to remember.
1. PlayStation consoles are something like 2-1 compared to Xbox in the UK. PS5 reached 1m consoles sold in the UK back in September 2021. Series X/S only reached 1M in January 2022.
2. As we've seen from data from Sony, 1st party exclusives actually aren't the biggest sellers overall.
The only 1st party exclusives to make the PS5 top 20 sales chart for 2021 in the EU were Spiderman MM at #4 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart at #14.
I'm currently playing Borderlands 2 and Elden Ring. The latter is my first Souls style game. Elden Ring is also the first video game I've pre-ordered since The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time a long, long time ago. (The hype just got to me).
I greatly appreciate Elden Ring's high difficulty level. It's refreshing to feel my butt handed to me over and over. Now, I can't stop playing.
@uptownsoul
I think you've misunderstood both points.
Yes, the PS5 version alone accounted for 32% of sales.
But as I mentioned before, there are more PS5 consoles sold in the UK compared to Series X/S, so a larger userbase to sell to.
I'd hazard a guess there are at least 1.5x more PS5 owners in the UK.
Obviously we have no idea of the Xbox sales ratio between console variants, because Smart Delivery unifies them all under one banner for cross-gen games.
As for Horizon FW, like I stated, an exclusive does not deterrent sales of a multiformat game.
I think if anything, Sony might be looking at Elden Ring selling 30% on PC and be thinking about how much cash they are missing out not releasing day one PC ports.
Elden Ring sold 2.5x more than the launch week of Horizon FW. Even if you take the Xbox 29% out, that's a big chunk left on the table.
Tap here to load 8 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...