After what feels like a particularly long string of AAA releases that failed to live up to the hype, Elden Ring is proof that some video games are still absolutely worth the anticipation.
FromSoftware's new open-world adventure is an undeniable smash hit. Not only is Elden Ring currently one of the best-reviewed games of all time, it's also FromSoft's most successful release by far.
Take a look at some of the best Elden Ring wins and fails (but mostly fails) below!
Elden Ring has already crashed into Steam's top ten most-played games, alongside such juggernauts as DOTA 2 and CS:GO. At the time of writing, it is currently the second most-played game on the platform, with just shy of half a million concurrent players. An incredible feat for a Souls game.
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To further put this into context, Elden Ring has over 350 times more players than EA's Battlefield 2042. The futuristic military shooter had a troubled launch last year that has severely hampered it. The multiplayer game's playerbase has dwindled so much in the last couple of months that even Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V have more active players than it.
But never, in my dizziest daydreams, would I have guessed that a FromSoftware game would manage to so massively outpace a multiplayer shooter from EA - much less a Battlefield game. But that's exactly what's happened! Elden Ring currently has 491k concurrent players to Battlefield 2042's 1,476. Almost certainly not the success EA envisioned.
It's worth noting that Elden Ring has the advantage of being a newer game, and that number is almost certainly going to shrink in the next few months. But whichever way you slice it, a FromSoftware video game having 350 times more players than the latest Battlefield game is as much a remarkable achievement on the part of Elden Ring as it is a damning indictment of Battlefield 2042. Once again, single-player games have proven they're here to stay.
Featured Image Credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment / EATopics: Battlefield 2042, Fromsoftware, Elden Ring