Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree sells 5 million copies in three days: how it compares to other 2024 games
Shadow of the Erdtree has delivered impressive results after topping charts and attracting hundreds of thousands of concurrent players. Here is how its launch sales compare to the base game and other 2024 releases.
According to publisher Bandai Namco, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has reached 5 million copies globally within just three days of its launch.
“This milestone is the result of the tremendous support from fans all over the world, to whom we express our heartfelt gratitude,” the company said in a statement. FromSoftware also thanked players for their support.
To the many who tread the path left by Kindly Miquella, we extend our heartfelt gratitude.#ELDENRING pic.twitter.com/0dXflKgmXB
— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) June 27, 2024
Launched on June 21, Shadow of the Erdtree received critical acclaim and peaked at over 781k concurrent players on Steam. However, the DLC initially held a “Mixed” rating on the platform (the majority of negative reviews came from China), with users citing performance issues and increased difficulty among the main troubles. However, the score has since risen to “Mostly Positive” (70% positive) based on more than 53k reviews.
Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree also topped the Steam charts, surpassing titles like Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, and Black Myth: Wukong (pre-orders) in weekly gross revenue.
The base game has sold 12 million globally in just over two weeks since its launch on February 25, 2022. It reached 23 million units sold in February 2024, crossing the 25 million mark earlier this month. This makes it the most commercially successful game in the history of FromSoftware.
So it is no surprise that Shadow of the Erdtree had such a robust launch. For comparison, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, which was also a major expansion for the popular game, sold over 3 million copies in its first week, reaching the 5 million milestone by the end of 2023.
How Shadow of the Erdtree sales compare to other 2024 releases?
Of course, it is not 100% fair to make such comparisons, especially given that Shadow of the Erdtree is an expansion to one of the best-selling games ever, and some of this year’s releases are new IPs or lower budget indie titles. It is also worth noting that not all developers/publishers disclose these figures — e.g. there is no official data on games like Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
However, we still think it will be interesting to see how the success of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree compares to other premium titles released this year:
- Palworld — 15 million copies sold on Steam in the first month (25 million players overall, including Xbox and Game Pass users)
- Helldivers 2 — 12 million copies in three months;
- Dragon’s Dogma 2 — 3 million copies in two months;
- Content Warning — 2.2 million copies in two months (PC only);
- Manor Lords — 2 million copies in three weeks (PC only);
- Tekken 8 — 2 million copies in the first month;
- Persona 3 Reload — 1 million copies in its first week;
- Balatro — 1 million copies in less than a month;
- Stellar Blade — 1 million copies in less than a month (PS5 only).
