Summary
Between the upcoming release ofElden Ring: Nightreignon May 30 and the recent announcement that Alex Garland is directing an A24-producedElden Ringmovie, it’s set to be an exciting couple of weeks for fans ofFromSoftware’s mega-hit.
It’s no surprise that Elden Ring is having an extended time in the limelight, because, despite releasing in 2022, FromSoftware’s RPG still has very high engagement and a respectable concurrent player count, over three years after release.
According to an analysis report fromAlinea Analytics, a staggering 45 per cent of players who own Elden Ring on Steam have over 100 hours played. If you consider the number of people who buy games and never play them, or stop playing after a short amount of time, then you’ll quickly realise how impressive the retention rate of Elden Ring is.
Engagement Monster
There are 15.7 million players who own Elden Ring on Steam, and approximately 7 million of these players have over 100 hours in the title. A further 19.4 per cent of players have between 50 and 100 hours, and just 2.1 per cent have over 500 hours.
Elden Ring is a big game, and it’s not easy. Both of these factors combine to drive up the play time of players, but it’s still impressive that so many players stick with Elden Ring for over 100 hours.
The analysis report compares the retention rate of Elden Ring and other “time-sink RPGs,” namelyBaldur’s Gate 3andDiablo 4.
32 per cent of Baldur’s Gate 3 and 27 per cent of Diablo 4 players have over 100 hours in the game. These are still impressive numbers, but both are outperformed by Elden Ring.
The aforementioned combination of difficulty and length could partially explain Elden Ring’s superior retention; Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t particularly hard at lower difficulties, meaning some players may have completed a single playthrough and stopped playing, while Elden Ring’s playthroughs take longer because players die more.
