Since being released on console and PC in February 2022, Bandai Namco’s Elden Ring has gone on to ship 23m units globally within two years, making it the developer FromSoftware's best-selling single title by some distance. FromSoftware’s other bestseller, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, published by Activision, shipped 10m units globally five years after its initial release in March 2019, while its entire Dark Souls series shipped 33m units between September 2011 to March 2022 (excluding Japan).

On 21 February 2024, Bandai Namco premiered a trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree, the long anticipated downloadable content (DLC) for Elden Ring. According to Ampere’s Games – Analytics data, the next day daily active users (DAUs) rose by 39% to 0.73m, and by 1.29m on the following weekend across PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. The trend continued, peaking at 1.39m DAUs the next weekend (03 March 2024) and falling thereafter. The impact of the trailer has persisted to date, with DAUs remaining above the six-month pre-trailer average of round 460,000.

Paid DLC is a good fit for Elden Ring

Elden Ring is fundamentally a single-player experience but does involve multiplayer elements, including summoning a player to aid in boss fights and a player-versus-player (PVP) mode. For players that choose to do several playthroughs, PVP is used to complement the new game and refresh the gameplay loop, while experimenting with core mechanics - including builds - is central to the game’s replay value. The title has fared well in terms of active users - with monthly active users (MAUs) surpassing one of 2023’s best selling titles, Hogwarts Legacy, from July 2023 to date. Despite this, it has still fallen victim to the single-player sales cycle, where a title has most of its sales within the first month of it being published, with engagement trailing off thereafter.

The notable rise in active users indicates the importance of DLC in prolonging the lifespan of titles that are largely single-player experiences. It is particularly impactful in the case of Elden Ring as the title has cultivated a dedicated fanbase, with returning players propelling the observed increase in active users. Ampere’s data suggests that 61% of Elden Ring players in February 2024 did not play in the previous month, though most of these acquired players had previously played the game.   

While releasing paid DLC some years after the release of a main game is perhaps not the most advanced strategy in a world where live-service games dominate, for some franchises and genres this approach can add meaningful revenue.  Judging by the response to the trailer release, Elden Ring is one of the games where a DLC strategy appears to be a good fit. With the actual DLC scheduled to release in June 2024, Elden Ring is on the verge of a second major surge in engagement and a healthy boost in sales revenue.