In an impressive display of financial success, Elden Ring has beaten out Call of Duty: Vanguard in US sales. For those familiar with Elden Ring's widely held support among critics and fans, this may come as no surprise considering the title has become nearly a household name for gamers.
Elden Ring was released on February 25 this year and instantly achieved legendary status in the gaming industry. Earning near-perfect scores from countless reviewers, FromSoftware's latest open-world Soulslike RPG has captured the attention of millions of gamers. Elden Ring's brutal yet fair challenges, expansive and picturesque landscapes, intriguing lore, and strong co-op community are all reasons why it boasts such large numbers of concurrent players every day. On Steam alone, Elden Ring saw 950,000 concurrent players with similarly massive crowds emerging from the console communities.
As a result of this success, Elden Ring has been outselling some of the biggest names in the gaming industry. According to sales figures gathered by the NPD group for April, Elden Ring has outsold Call of Duty: Vanguard, making the three-month-old megahit the best-selling game of the past 12 months. Elden Ring was just behind Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga in sales for the month, which was another highly anticipated and widely successful release. Call of Duty: Vanguard is actually one of the worst-selling titles in the franchise, falling far behind Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Elden Ring's biggest commercial threat from the Call of Duty franchise may actually come from the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 reboot.
Despite the relative niche style of FromSoft's notoriously difficult RPGs, they are consistently met with impressive sales and critical acclaim. Its popular Dark Souls franchise has amassed nearly 30 million sales and has taken on an important role in gaming culture as a basis for comparison whenever a particularly challenging game is discussed, not to mention spawning an entire subgenre of "Soulslike" titles. With over 13 million sales in its first five weeks, Elden Ring was poised from the beginning to become another triumphant release for FromSoft thanks to its more approachable design and sprawling, Breath of the WIld-esque open-world exploration.
Being less than halfway through the year, Elden Ring still has plenty of time to break further sales records and is certainly on track to be named Game of the Year. With the possibility of upcoming Elden Ring DLC, it's likely that FromSoft's masterpiece will only continue to grow in popularity.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Source: IGN