Elden Ring sells 20 million copies and makes an excellent impression

It was announced this earlier today Elder RingFromSoftware’s Game of the Year 2022 for Many People (including most of the staff on this site), sold 20 million copies worldwide since its release a year ago. That is a much.

You may be wondering why I point this out my citya site that in 2023 could generally give half a shit about sales boasts/numbers, especially when they’re wrapped in a publisher’s press release?

It’s because I think Elder Ring, a hard-hitting action/RPG that’s essentially a single-player experience, is doing one hell of a good job selling 20 million copies in 2022-23. It shows publishers and the people who control their wallets that not every video game released in the modern age has to be a Forever Game, a live service time sink that not only demands our constant attention, but constantly demands money in the process

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you buy Elder Ringyou play Elder Ringyou flush Elder Ring and then you’re done with it! There are no DLC packs, no season passes, no multiplayer modes selling skins for $2. What you paid for is what you got. For many people who grew up playing less exploitative gaming, or are fed up with the demands of modern gaming (or both!), Elder Ring was conceptually a near-perfect video game experience.

I know it’s anything but alone. It’s not like every game released these days is a live service drain. Indeed this GOTY list I linked above is dominated by standalone single player experiences.

But none of them sold 20 million copies. That makes Elden Rings sale so important. They not only show that a traditional video game can do well, they show that it can be an absolute blockbuster. While it can be difficult to pin down specific sales figures in these days of digital storefronts, 20 million puts the game in the same range as Modern Warfare 2

And EAs FIFA seriesan exceptional feat for a game that’s hard as hell and enjoying a fraction of the advertising budget of these juggernauts – both full price retail games that then try to trick players into compensation more Money on the road – received.

You know what else is in this vending arena? Cyberpunk 2077—that, OK, had its problems and an astronomical marketing budget too—sold over 20 million copies. God of War Ragnarokanother single-player experience, released in 2022, has sold itself over 10 million copies (thanks a lot to Sony’s first-party strategy, von horizon To The last of usgoes a similar way). Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderthe first single player war of stars

game in one very long time? Oh hey, it also sold over 10 million, which was more than good enough to justify a big-budget sequel coming out very soon.

These massive sales figures are not only success stories for the companies involved, but also a sign to other publishers that the people who buy and play games may be tiring of this obsession with peeling us at every turn and ripping our hearts out of the game Ripping games in a desperate attempt to advance our time spent with them. I understand companies can know a live service game possibly Earn more money than a regular one – check it out FIFAwhat did billion digital map sales on top of retail profits – but it’s not guaranteed. Not every game has to do that. We have neither the time nor the money for that.

Sometimes people just want to play a video game, finish it, enjoy it the way it was, and then move on with their lives. And these people show that there are enough of them to not only buy a few million copies of these games, but to make them absolute blockbusters.