Elden Ring is currently No. 1 in the GfK UK Boxed Charts this week and has outsold previous Souls-like games' launch sales according to a report by GamesIndustry.biz.
The previous biggest ‘Souls' game launch (at boxed retail) was 2016's Dark Souls 3, but Elden Ring has beaten that title's boxed launch by 26%. This is before we consider digital sales, and the download games market has accelerated significantly since 2016.
Christopher Dring, gamesindustry.biz writer about the runaway sucess of Elden Ring.
Indeed, quite exciting news this is. But how does it stack up to the rest of the “Souls franchise” that Miyazaki and his excellent team at FromSoftware created? Let's go from the lowest to highest sales and see.
By 2011 Demon's Souls shipped 1 million copies worldwide. Then, second to last is Dark Souls 2 with around 3.5 million copies sold by 2015, this includes both the base game and the “Scholar of The First Sin” enhanced edition of the game. Next on the list is Bloodborne with 3.1 million sales. If that number seems small to you, then you would be right. This is only the boxed versions of the game, with surely plenty of digital sales too, but sadly we have no strong sources for digital sales. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice scored 5 million sales by July 2020. Then we have the OG Dark Souls 1, with whopping 5.5 million sales. And this is only the original DS and “Prepare to Die” edition. Without counting sales of Dark Souls Remastered, sales numbers of which proved to be extremely hard to track down. And finally, the pinnacle of FromSoft sales is Dark Souls 3. With over 10 million sales on all platforms worldwide, circa 2020.
According to stats provided by GamesIndustr.biz Elden Ring beat DS3 boxed launch numbers by 26%. Which is an astounding number. They also promised digital sales data later this week, which I can already guess is going to show a significant rise in sales compared to Dark Souls 3. After all the download market for games has been growing strong since 2016.
63% of all Elden Ring's traditional boxed sales were made on the PS5, while only 17% were made on Xbox consoles. Proving that gamers are ready to step into the true next-gen. This hopefully starts a departure from PS4 and Xbox One, and we can see more titles exclusive for the current-gen consoles. PC landed dead last with 3% sales. Which is not surprising at all. The boxed games game is dying on PC, digital sales on the other hand stand tall above the traditional distribution method.
The GfK UK boxed charts did not disclose any specific sales data. They stick to the percentages and such instead of sales numbers proper. But you can visit SteamDB and pull data for peak players for each game. Dark Souls 3 peak concurrent players was 129,975 during its launch in 2016. But Elden Ring recorded a massive 891,638 concurrent players on the 27th of February 2022. Placing this peak as the 7th highest in steams history. Cyberpunk 2077 for example peaked at 1,054,388. And then rapidly declined. Despite the issues, refunds, and controversies Cyberpunk went on to sell 14 million copies.
At this rapid pace, Elden Ring could very well enter Wikipedia's list of best-selling videogames. The bottom spot is currently occupied by New Super Mario Bros. U which sold 21 million copies. With the numbers Elden Ring is pulling right now, it just might happen.
Ever since Elden Ring entered sales Sony's bestseller exclusive Horizon: Forbidden West sales dropped by 79 percent.
Here's the GfK UK Top Ten Best Selling Boxed Games for the week ending February 26, 2022, provided by gamesindustry.biz:
| Ranking | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Elden Ring |
| 2 | Horizon: Forbidden West |
| 3 | Pokémon Legends: Arceus |
| 4 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe |
| 5 | FIFA 22 |
| 6 | Call of Duty: Vanguard |
| 7 | Dying Light 2: Stay Human |
| 8 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons |
| 9 | Minecraft (Switch) |
| 10 | Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition |