Bandai Namco and FromSoftware’s Elden Ring has achieved being the US best seller for four of the five months it has been on sale.
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Executive Director & Video Game Industry Advisor for The NPD Group Mat Piscatella recently shared various fiscal statistics for the US video game industry’s performance in June. While consumer spending fell 11%, and hardware fell 8% compared to the year prior, there was one clear winner.
“US NPD PREMIUM GAMES – Elden Ring repeated as the best-selling game of the month, and it remains the best-selling game of 2022 YTD. Elden Ring has placed first in dollar sales in four of its first five months in market,” Piscatella revealed.
Piscatella also mentioned how the game had succeeded under nearly every metric that month. Along with topping the top 20 in dollar sales, it’s also the best selling title YTD 2022, best seller in the last 12 months (ending June 2022), and best seller in 12 months on PlayStation and Xbox platforms. Some even reported the game was the best selling game in US history, before NPD issued a correction.
The only metric it didn’t top being a best-selling game on Nintendo Switch, as said particular title is not available on that platform. The game had been the best seller of May, March, and February — the month when it launched — with the record only broken in April when it fell second to Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
We don’t have an exact metric on sales at this time. Bandai Namco announced in their May fiscal results, as translated by IGN, that Elden Ring had sold 13.4 million copies in its first month on sale; growing from 12 million from its first three weeks. GamesIndustry.biz notes in their earlier report that 2016’s Dark Souls 3 had sold 10 million units over four years, for comparison.
“It’s astonishing to see just how many people have been playing Elden Ring,” FromSoftware President Hidetaka Miyazaki admitted in a statement. “I’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks on behalf of the entire development team.”
“I would like to use this opportunity to give my thanks to all our fans who have brought Elden Ring into their gaming life,” humbly added Bandai Namco CEO and President Yasuo Miyakawa. “I am very proud to have been involved in bringing such a wonderful and fantastic game to life with FromSoftware, under the guidance of Director Miyazaki, and with George R. R. Martin.”
“Much effort was placed into creating Elden Ring in order to exceed the expectations of our fans worldwide. With a similar goal, we will continue our efforts in expanding the brand beyond the game itself and into everyone’s daily life,” Miyazaki promised. “We will continue to create enjoyment and fulfilment through entertainment so that we can come closer and connect to our fans around the world.”
Despite some initial performance issues, Elden Ring was soon praised by critics and fans alike. While some once again conflated difficulty with inaccessible game design, Miyazaki defended the game’s challenge multiple times.
“I do feel apologetic toward anyone who feels there’s just too much to overcome in my games,” the FromSoftware director stated in an earlier interview. “I just want as many players as possible to experience the joy that comes from overcoming hardship.”
“We are always looking to improve, but, in our games specifically, hardship is what gives meaning to the experience,” he then justified. “So it’s not something we’re willing to abandon at the moment. It’s our identity.”
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