Summary
Doom: The Dark Ages' Steam numbershad fans of the series, and the latest game in it, a little worried.The Dark Agesonly managed about a third of the peakDoom Eternalachieved in terms of players on its launch day. It looks like that was probably due to the new Doom game launching onXbox Game Pass, asBethesdahas revealed a lot more people have been playing The Dark Ages than played Eternal in its first week.
The Xbox-owned studio has revealed that The Dark Ages is performing better than anyid Softwaregame ever. Bethesda tweeted that three million people have stepped into Doom Slayer’s newest suit so far. An impressive stat all by itself that’s made even more impressive when you’re told The Dark Ages has hit that benchmark seven times faster than Doom Eternal.
“Thank you for making DOOM: The Dark Ages the biggest launch in id’s history - 7x faster to 3 million players than DOOM Eternal,” Bethesda tweeted on Tuesday night. The studio hasn’t broken down where exactly those players are coming from. However, with The Dark Ages only slightly bettering its launch day peak two days later during its opening weekend on Steam, it seems likely that a big chunk of that three million has been playing on Game Pass.
Three Million Doom Slayers Have Played The Dark Ages
Maybe Not Such A Lackluster Launch After All
Some Doom fans don’t seem to be content with Bethesda revealing how many millions of us have played The Dark Ages. The replies to the celebratory tweet are filled with people demanding that the number relayed be copies sold, pointing to that being a true reflection of how the game has performed so far.
It’s still unclear just how much Game Pass numbers play into a game’s success. It seems like a lot of people playedHi-Fi Rush, but thatdidn’t stop Xbox from shutting down Tango Gameworks. On the other hand,Palworld studio Pocket Pair hit back at critics of devs flaunting Game Pass numbers.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33hitting a million players was hit with the same critique as Doom reaching three million, but even though that’s not copies sold, it’s still arguably a measure of success.
I’m sure Bethesda would prefer people were buying The Dark Ages rather than playing it on Game Pass, but even with the lackluster Steam numbers, the new Doom might have still sold a lot of copies. Earlier this month, Xbox revealedit has been the best-selling publisher for pre-orders on PlayStation so far in 2025. Doom: The Dark Ages will have been one of a handful of games that made that happen.
