Editor's take: Bandai Namco had high expectations for Elden Ring, but even the publisher has to be over the moon with how well the game has sold thus far. We're only a few months in, but it's already a top candidate for game of the year thanks to its excellent gameplay and smooth launch.
Bandai Namco during a Q&A session with investors late last year said they anticipated selling four million copies of the game within the first five weeks of launch. That would have been impressive considering Dark Souls III shipped around three million copies in roughly the same period of time, but Elden Ring smashed all expectations.
Developer FromSoftware has revealed that since the game's launch on February 25, more than 12 million copies have been sold worldwide including more than a million in Japan alone (through March 14, 2022). The developer credited the simultaneous release of the game in 14 languages (Steam only) and closed network tests conducted ahead of launch as being instrumental in its early success.
According to SteamDB, the game peaked at 953,426 concurrent players on March 5 and is the third most-played game on the platform with 589,170 players right now. Elden Ring has also earned a Metacritic score of 96 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (95 on PC).
Elden Ring was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki in collaboration with George R. R. Martin. It was originally scheduled to land on January 21 but was delayed by one month.