Elden Ring had sold 30 million copies worldwide by April 2025, making it Bandai Namco’s fastest-selling game ever, according to the publisher’s own shipment disclosures. Shadow of the Erdtree, the 2024 expansion, added another 10 million units on top of that by July 2025, and the 2025 spin-off Elden Ring Nightreign moved 2 million units in its first 24 hours alone. At its Steam launch in early March 2022, the base game drew a peak of 952,523 concurrent players, a mark few single-player releases have approached since. It also won 435 of the 599 Game of the Year awards up for grabs in 2022, a Guinness World Records title for the most Game of the Year awards ever won by a single game. This analysis consolidates data from Bandai Namco Entertainment, SteamDB, Metacritic, Guinness World Records, and 9 other primary sources to map Elden Ring’s commercial, critical, and competitive record heading into 2026.
TL;DR
- Elden Ring had sold 30 million copies worldwide by April 2025, up from 13.4 million in its first five weeks (Bandai Namco Entertainment).
- Shadow of the Erdtree sold 5 million copies in its first three days in June 2024 and topped 10 million by July 2025 (Bandai Namco Entertainment).
- Elden Ring Nightreign sold 2 million units in 24 hours and passed 5 million by July 2025 (Bandai Namco Entertainment).
- The base game’s Steam launch peak reached 952,523 concurrent players in March 2022, one of the highest non-live-service peaks the platform has recorded (SteamDB).
- Elden Ring holds the Guinness World Records title for most Game of the Year awards, winning 435 of 599 up for grabs in 2022 (Guinness World Records).
- It won 4 of 8 nominations at The Game Awards 2022, including Game of the Year (The Game Awards).
- Metacritic scores landed at 94 on PC and 96 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, with the PS5 edition holding an 8.4 user score across 24,066 ratings (Metacritic).
- Steam carries more than 1.14 million user reviews for the base game at roughly 93% positive, rated Very Positive (Steam, via Steambase.io).
- By September 2024, Elden Ring’s 28.6 million units sold had already outsold the entire Dark Souls trilogy’s roughly 27 million combined (Bandai Namco Entertainment).
- FromSoftware’s headcount grew to 456 employees by May 2025, alongside record revenue and profit tied largely to the Elden Ring franchise (Kadokawa Corporation disclosures).
- A new any% glitchless speedrun world record of 52:12 was set in April 2026, more than four years after launch (Speedrun.com).
- Bandai Namco reported record net sales of 1.348 trillion yen for the fiscal year ended March 2026, naming Elden Ring among its key growth drivers (Bandai Namco Holdings).
1. Sales and Shipment Milestones
Bandai Namco has disclosed Elden Ring’s shipment numbers in a steady drumbeat since launch, and the trajectory shows a game that kept selling long after most single-player titles fall off retail charts. Worldwide shipments reached 13.4 million within five weeks of the February 25, 2022 launch, then 20 million by the game’s first anniversary, and 30 million by April 2025. That makes it the fastest-selling release in Bandai Namco’s history, ahead of the entire mainline Dark Souls trilogy. The game was also the second-bestselling title in the US in 2022, trailing only Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Worldwide shipments within 5 weeks of launch | 13.4 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment, FY2022 results |
| Worldwide shipments at 1-year mark (Feb 2023) | 20 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Worldwide shipments (Sept 2024) | 28.6 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Worldwide shipments (April 2025) | 30 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| US best-seller rank, 2022 | 2nd, behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | Circana/NPD, via Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Europe best-seller rank, 2022 | 3rd | GSD, via Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Japan retail best-seller rank, 2022 | 10th | Famitsu, via Bandai Namco Entertainment |
Context: Elden Ring shipped across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC simultaneously rather than as a console exclusive, a launch pattern we track across the industry in our console market statistics.
2. Critical Reception and Review Scores
Review aggregators treated Elden Ring as an outlier from day one. Metacritic’s PS5 edition holds a 96 Metascore across 86 critic reviews, alongside an 8.4 user score from 24,066 ratings, a rare case of critics and most players agreeing this emphatically. OpenCritic’s critic panel put the game at 98% recommended across 215 reviews. On Steam, the base game has accumulated more than 1.14 million user reviews at roughly 93% positive, a rating that has held steady for four years.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Metacritic Metascore, PS5 (86 critic reviews) | 96/100 | Metacritic |
| Metacritic Metascore, PC | 94/100 | Metacritic |
| Metacritic Metascore, Xbox Series X/S | 96/100 | Metacritic |
| Metacritic user score, PS5 (24,066 ratings) | 8.4/10 | Metacritic |
| OpenCritic critics recommend | 98% (215 reviews) | OpenCritic |
| Steam user reviews, total | 1,144,548 | Steam, via Steambase.io |
| Steam user reviews, percent positive | ~93%, rated Very Positive | Steam, via Steambase.io |
Note: for how review sentiment on a single title compares against broader audience segments, see our gamer demographics statistics.
3. Awards Sweep: 2022 to 2023
No recent game swept awards season the way Elden Ring did. Guinness World Records credits it with winning 435 of the 599 Game of the Year awards up for grabs in 2022, a 72.6% hit rate that set the all-time record, ahead of The Last of Us Part II’s 322 wins from 2020. It took 4 of 8 nominations at The Game Awards 2022, including Game of the Year, plus 5 awards at the D.I.C.E. Awards and 4 at the Golden Joystick Awards, including Ultimate Game of the Year and Studio of the Year for FromSoftware. It was not universally dominant. God of War Ragnarok out-won it, 6 to 4, at The Game Awards, and BAFTA gave its overall Best Game prize to Vampire Survivors in 2023, though Elden Ring still picked up Best Multiplayer and Best Music from 7 nominations there.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total Game of the Year awards won (2022) | 435 of 599 (72.6%) | Guinness World Records |
| The Game Awards 2022, wins/nominations | 4 / 8 | The Game Awards |
| D.I.C.E. Awards 2023, wins | 5, including Game of the Year | Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences |
| Golden Joystick Awards 2022, wins | 4, including Ultimate GOTY and Studio of the Year | Golden Joystick Awards |
| BAFTA Games Awards 2023, wins/nominations | 2 / 7 | BAFTA |
| Previous GOTY-award record holder | The Last of Us Part II, 322 awards (2020) | Guinness World Records |
4. Steam Player Engagement and Peaks
Elden Ring’s Steam numbers are unusual for a single-player game with no live-service hooks. The base game’s launch-week peak concurrent players reached 952,523 in March 2022, a figure only a handful of non-free titles have ever matched, and it posted a second major peak of 781,261 during the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC launch window in June 2024, more than two years after release. Elden Ring Nightreign, a multiplayer-focused spin-off, peaked at 313,593 concurrent players at its May 2025 launch, then settled to a fraction of that within a year, a steeper drop-off than the base game.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Steam peak concurrent players, launch (March 2022) | 952,523 | SteamCharts |
| Steam peak concurrent players, Shadow of the Erdtree window (June 2024) | 781,261 | SteamDB, via Steambase.io |
| Steam peak concurrent players, Nightreign launch (May 2025) | 313,593 | SteamDB, via Steambase.io |
| Nightreign concurrent players, 14 months post-launch | 9,888 | Steambase.io |
| Base game concurrent players, mid-2026 | ~29,000 | Steambase.io |
Context: for how this stacks up against other single-player titles’ Steam concurrency, see our Steam statistics.
5. Shadow of the Erdtree and Elden Ring Nightreign
Bandai Namco’s two follow-ups took different paths after launch. Shadow of the Erdtree sold 5 million copies in its first three days in June 2024 and crossed 10 million by July 2025, with Metacritic scores of 92 to 95 across platforms nearly matching the base game, and GameSpot, IGN, and Game Informer all handing out perfect or near-perfect review scores. Nightreign, a standalone three-player co-op spin-off released in May 2025, sold 2 million units in 24 hours and 3.5 million within five days, but its Metacritic scores of 77 to 84 and 76% OpenCritic recommend rate sit well below the mainline game, and its own expansion, The Forsaken Hollows, drew just 33% critic recommendation from 12 reviews.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Shadow of the Erdtree units sold, first 3 days | 5 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Shadow of the Erdtree units sold, by July 2025 | 10 million+ | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Shadow of the Erdtree Metacritic, PS5/PC/XSX | 94 / 92 / 95 | Metacritic |
| Nightreign units sold, first 24 hours | 2 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Nightreign units sold, 5 days | 3.5 million | Push Square, via Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Nightreign units sold, by July 2025 | 5 million+ | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Nightreign Metacritic, PC/PS5/XSX | 79 / 77 / 84 | Metacritic |
| Forsaken Hollows (Nightreign DLC) OpenCritic recommend | 33% (12 reviews) | OpenCritic |
Note: the gap between the mainline game and its spin-off’s reception shows up clearly in the numbers, Nightreign’s OpenCritic recommend rate of 76% sits 22 points below the base game’s 98%.
6. Speedrunning and Community Records
Elden Ring built a durable speedrunning scene almost immediately, helped early on by a map-warping zip glitch that let runners finish in under five minutes. Four years later, competitive runners keep shaving time off the legitimate categories. The glitchless any% world record fell to 52:12 in April 2026, with a runner improving the mark by just four seconds, while the unrestricted any% category, which allows the original glitches, has not seen a new top-tier time since 2022, a sign of how thoroughly early routes were optimized.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Any% glitchless world record (as of April 2026) | 52:12 | Speedrun.com |
| Improvement over previous glitchless record | 4 seconds | Speedrun.com |
| Any% unrestricted world record | Set in 2022, still standing as of 2026 | Speedrun.com |
| Latest major Nightreign balance patch | Version 1.03.2 (January 2026) | Screen Rant |
7. Franchise Context: FromSoftware, Kadokawa, and the Souls Legacy
Elden Ring’s success shows up two levels up the corporate chain. FromSoftware’s headcount grew from 423 employees in June 2024 to 456 by May 2025, and the studio posted double-digit growth in revenue and profit for the fiscal year, per Kadokawa Corporation’s financial disclosures. Kadokawa has owned 70% of FromSoftware since 2014, with Sony Interactive Entertainment and Tencent affiliate Sixjoy Hong Kong each holding minority stakes acquired in August 2022. Elden Ring’s individual sales now exceed the entire Dark Souls trilogy. By September 2024, its 28.6 million units had already passed the roughly 27 million the three Dark Souls games sold combined, a franchise that took over a decade to build.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| FromSoftware employees (May 2025) | 456 | Automaton Media, via Kadokawa disclosures |
| FromSoftware employees (June 2024) | 423 | Automaton Media, via Kadokawa disclosures |
| FromSoftware FY revenue | ~23.5 billion yen | Kadokawa Corporation financial disclosures |
| FromSoftware FY operating income | ~10.08 billion yen | Kadokawa Corporation financial disclosures |
| FromSoftware FY net income | ~6.6 billion yen | Kadokawa Corporation financial disclosures |
| Kadokawa ownership of FromSoftware | 70% | Kadokawa Corporation |
| Dark Souls trilogy combined sales (as of 2024) | ~27 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Bandai Namco FY2026 record net sales (year ended March 2026) | 1.348 trillion yen, +8.6% year over year | Bandai Namco Holdings |
Note: studio headcount and revenue scale differently across the industry, a comparison we cover in our game development statistics.
Summary: Elden Ring by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Worldwide shipments (April 2025) | 30 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Worldwide shipments within 5 weeks of launch | 13.4 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Worldwide shipments at 1-year mark (Feb 2023) | 20 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Worldwide shipments (Sept 2024) | 28.6 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Shadow of the Erdtree units sold, first 3 days | 5 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Shadow of the Erdtree units sold, by July 2025 | 10 million+ | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Nightreign units sold, first 24 hours | 2 million | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Nightreign units sold, by July 2025 | 5 million+ | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Metacritic Metascore, PS5 | 96/100 | Metacritic |
| Metacritic user score, PS5 (24,066 ratings) | 8.4/10 | Metacritic |
| OpenCritic critics recommend | 98% (215 reviews) | OpenCritic |
| Steam user reviews, base game | 1,144,548, ~93% positive | Steam, via Steambase.io |
| Steam peak concurrent players, launch (March 2022) | 952,523 | SteamCharts/SteamDB |
| Steam peak concurrent players, Shadow of the Erdtree window | 781,261 | SteamDB, via Steambase.io |
| Nightreign peak concurrent players (May 2025) | 313,593 | SteamDB, via Steambase.io |
| Guinness World Records GOTY-award tally | 435 of 599 (72.6%) | Guinness World Records |
| The Game Awards 2022, wins/nominations | 4 / 8 | The Game Awards |
| D.I.C.E. Awards 2023, wins | 5, including Game of the Year | Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences |
| Any% glitchless speedrun world record (April 2026) | 52:12 | Speedrun.com |
| FromSoftware employees (May 2025) | 456 | Kadokawa Corporation, via Automaton Media |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered by pulling figures directly from primary shipment disclosures, platform-reported metrics, and named awards-body results, cross-referencing overlapping sales milestones across two or more outlets and rounding down where a range was reported rather than an exact figure.
- Bandai Namco Entertainment, press releases (2022 to 2025 sales milestones)
- Metacritic, Elden Ring
- OpenCritic
- Guinness World Records, Most Game of the Year awards
- The Game Awards
- Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, D.I.C.E. Awards
- Golden Joystick Awards
- BAFTA Games Awards
- SteamCharts, Elden Ring
- Steambase.io, Elden Ring and Elden Ring Nightreign
- Steam, Elden Ring and Elden Ring Nightreign
- Speedrun.com, Elden Ring leaderboards
- Automaton Media, FromSoftware financial results, citing Kadokawa Corporation disclosures
- Additional figures: Bandai Namco Holdings FY2026 results (May 2026); Push Square and Screen Rant reporting on Nightreign milestones and patches.
Data watch: Bandai Namco typically discloses updated Elden Ring shipment totals at quarterly and annual earnings briefings, so a fresh milestone is likely within the next reporting cycle; Metacritic and OpenCritic scores update continuously as new reviews post; SteamDB and Steambase.io track concurrent-player counts in real time; and Kadokawa’s next FromSoftware headcount and revenue disclosure is expected with its following annual securities report.
Last updated: July 23, 2026. We update this page quarterly as new data is published.