What just happened? FromSoftware's hit action RPG is seeing an absolutely colossal resurgence in popularity, with Steam numbers spiking to levels not seen since its launch. And it's all thanks to the game's first major expansion – Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
The expansion dropped last Friday to tremendous critical acclaim, earning the highest review scores of any video game DLC in recorded history. With a Metacritic score of 93, expectations were understandably sky-high. And it seems the fans have matched that hype, sending Elden Ring's concurrent player count on Steam skyrocketing.
Over this past weekend, the game hit a peak of 766,158 simultaneous players on Valve's platform. To put that in perspective, it's just 200k shy of the all-time record set not long after its February 2022 launch.
As of writing, those numbers have since dipped down to the 300k+ mark but it's still pretty impressive. Leading the charts is currently Counter-Strike 2 with 800k+ players while Banana is coming in at a close second with 700k+ players.
Shadow of the Erdtree takes players to the all-new Realm of Shadow in pursuit of Miquella the Kind. The journey introduces brand new Legacy Dungeons, fearsome boss encounters, and powerful armaments to obtain. All that content comes with a beefy $39.99 price tag. But people clearly think it's worth the investment. After all, it's the largest DLC for the game so far.
Interestingly though, this spike seems to be driven mostly by returning players rather than new adopters. The game hasn't charted on Steam's top sellers list recently, suggesting the bulk of this player influx is from Elden Ring vets itching to take on the expansion's fresh challenges.
This can perhaps be explained by the fact that accessing the expansion content requires tackling two of the base game's rather tough challenges – the battles against Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood.
Unfortunately, not all impressions of Shadow of the Erdtree have been positive so far. Despite its universal acclaim from critics, the expansion is currently sitting at a "Mixed" user review score on Steam compiled from over 30,000 player ratings. The main complaint is that the new bosses and areas are simply too difficult – "prepare to die countless times," as one player noted in a review.