Doom: The Dark Ages has reached 3 million total players since releasing last week. Sales figures have yet to be released at this point by developer ID Software or Bethesda, but given the game was an Xbox Game Pass launch title, this is expected. This news was announced via a post on social media, announcing the achievement for the game, as well as stating that this makes Doom: The Dark Ages the biggest launch in the history of ID Software, reaching the milestone seven times faster than Doom Eternal, which released in 2020.
Doom: The Dark Ages was released across Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, and PC, being a first-party game to see simultaneous release across console lines since Microsoft began pushing for multiplatform releases several years ago. Forza Horizon 5 and Sea of Thieves, for instance, both saw considerable time atop the PlayStation charts, which bodes well here. On Steam, the title has had a concurrent player count of 31,470, with a 24-hour peak of 16,328. In five years, Doom Eternal managed to hit a peak of 104,891. This could reflect lower sales on the Steam platform, or possibly more people playing the game with PC Game Pass. 2016’s Doom additionally had a player count of 44,271 set at its launch.
Unlike previous entries in the series, both released prior to Bethesda’s acquisition of Bethesda, which closed in late 2020, The Dark Ages released day one with Game Pass, meaning there is most likely some dip-off of players that might have bought it wanting to play it through the service (this is my plan when I finally do get around to it). The game is $69.99 in the US. With Game Pass also boasting a day one release of Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, which is currently the front runner for game of the year, the ecosystem might have expanded prior to this release, though we don’t have solid numbers. Microsoft has pushed their ever-expanding Game Pass, recently even with a ‘this is an Xbox’ ad campaign for the many platforms you can access it, so I’m sure the company would be happy if that’s where players were enjoying the title.
Focusing on player counts rather than sales has become common with companies, with the metric having been previously used with games like Assassin’s Creed: Shadow, which was also available through Ubisoft+, their streaming service. While this is understandable, given the new goal to get players to migrate to services rather than to outright buy your game, it can be a bad metric to gauge success. Hi-Fi Rush from Tango Gameworks is an example of this, boasting impressive player counts and winning several awards for Xbox, only for the studio to be closed by Microsoft (later saved by Krafton).
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