Update: Well, it turns out that this claim involving the historical sales of Elden Ring wasn’t accurate. Since first announcing this sales milestone for the game, The NPD Group has put out a new update stating that Elden Ring doesn’t actually crack the top 10 of all-time.
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“Because the ranked charts do not include the full history for all titles and all platforms – across both physical and digital sales – this note was worded too definitively for what is an incomplete comparable universe,” said The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella on social media. “I apologize for the lack of clarity in the note.”
The original story can be found below.
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It’s no secret that Elden Ring has been the biggest game of 2022 so far. Not only was it lauded by both fans and critics when it launched back in February, but it also sold at a vastly higher rate than anyone would’ve expected. Now, roughly six months after release, Elden Ring continues to sell at such a strong level that it has become one of the most successful video games ever in the United States.
According to The NPD Group, Elden Ring has now become on of the “top 10 best-selling premium games in the U.S” of all-time in terms of dollar sales. In short, this is a staggering accomplishment, especially given that Elden Ring has only been purchasable since February. As a whole, Elden Ring was the top-selling game in the U.S. throughout the month of June 2022 and is still the top game of the year in terms of overall sales. In short, both FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have to be beyond thrilled with the game’s success.
The only caveat that is worth mentioning with this new information is that The NPD Group as a whole has only been tracking video game sales in the U.S. dating back to 1995. As such, there’s no way to know if any games that were released prior to that time would have generated more money than Elden Ring. Then again, given that games are somewhat more costly and also available to a larger install base nowadays, this seems unlikely.
To better explain just how big Elden Ring has been this year, The NPD Group is also now predicting that the game will top Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as the biggest game of 2022. While Modern Warfare 2 will likely still pass Elden Ring in revenue generated in the long run, the fact that FromSoftware’s latest title could be bigger than an annualized Call of Duty game is something that we don’t usually see.
Do you continue to be shocked about the success that Elden Ring has had so far this year? And what do you think this spells for the future of the franchise? Let me know either down in the comments or message me on Twitter at @MooreMan12.
