'Elden Ring' Is The Fastest Selling Souls Game So Far

Elden Ring came out last Friday and it absolutely blew away critics and consumers alike. In our review we praised it for "A mind-meltingly large open world absolutely filled with secrets, challenging bosses, ingenious dungeons, and far more freedom than previous FromSoftware games." We weren't the only place to give it a perfect ten, critics gave it more perfect scores than you get in a round of Wii bowling.

It's proving to sell extremely well commercially, too. Despite figures for digital purchases not being available yet, Elden Ring has had the best launch of any Soulsbourne title. According to GI.biz, it topped the sales charts in the UK this week, and sold 26% more than the next best launch, 2016's Dark Souls III.

We won't know the true scale of its success until the figures for digital sales are known later in the week. Digital has been selling roughly the same amount as physical media recently, with almost half of Horizon Forbidden West's figures coming from digital sales. Digital is far more popular than it was in 2016 so it is expected that the gap will widen.

Sales were also dominated by PlayStation 5. Copies sold for Sony's latest console version made up 63% of all physical purchases in the UK, with a further 17% for PlayStation 4. Xbox only made up 17% with Xbox Series and Xbox One combined, with PC heading up the rear at 3%. It should be noted though, that Xbox and PC are digitally dominated platforms, and we may see these numbers level out once digital sales are accounted for.

Part of the reason Elden Ring may have sold better than previous FromSoftware games, is that director Hidetaka Miyazaki, tried to make the game more approachable in the ways you can take on different challenges. There is also a number of new classes available to suit different player styles.