Despite being a spiritual successor to the notoriously difficult Soulsborne series, Elden Ring managed to sell over 12 million copies shortly after its launch. That number swelled up to over 13.4 million, well over three times the estimated sales of 4 million, according to an earnings report published by Namco Bandai, Elden Ring's publisher. The aforementioned sales figures were for March 31, 2022, and the actual number of copies sold until now could be much higher. The rest of the report, which can be read in its entirety on the company's official website (in Japanese), talks about how Namco Bandai did overall last quarter.
One can chalk down Elden Ring's impressive sales figures to the various QoL improvements it bought over previous From Software games, such as the ability to instantaneously fast travel, adding a horse to make traversal quicker, the ability to reset your character's attributes, and the likes. Newer players get several combat aids such as NPC summons and Spirit Ashes. Those looking for a challenge can ride solo and with some skill, even beat the entire game with a level 1 character.
If Dark Souls 3 is anything to go by, one can expect Elden Ring to get its first DLC sometime in October/November of this year. There are multiple theories as to what the DLC could bring, most of which point towards a giant cloud ominously placed at the centre of the map. From Software could even do a Dark Souls 2 and throw in a new ending (on top of the six known ones) into the mix.
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