We’ve known just how hot Elden Ring has become. Released on February 25, FromSoftware’s latest Soulslike has shipped some 13.4 million copies to date, making it more successful than Sledgehammer Games’ disappointing Call of Duty: Vanguard from last year, a franchise often known for dominating the charts. Now, however, we’ve learned the masochistic open-world game wasn’t just a smash hit in the market. Elden Ring was also super popular on YouTube, amassing 3.4 billion video views in just 60 days, according to YouTube Gaming statistics, becoming one of the biggest launches on the platform.
YouTube Gaming, the dedicated gaming division for Google’s video-sharing platform, recently posted some viewership figures on Twitter. According to the stats, Elden Ring garnered more views during its launch period than other celebrated games, such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (456 million views), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (638 million views), and even GTA V (1.9 billion views). A few particular YouTubers were credited as fueling Elden Ring’s views. You’ve got “lore specialist” VaatiVidya and “soulsborne scholar” Zullie the Witch, who have been instrumental in uncovering stories and analyzing characters, respectively. There’s also Distortion2, a well-known speedrunner who crushed the game in under nine minutes back in April. YouTube Gaming also gave a shoutout to the “all-knowing guides” of Fextralife and the “tarnished tunemaker” RichaadEB, an exceptional metal guitarist who’s covered Elden Ring songs tracks.
There are a few other data points in the above tweet, such as the most popular bosses to upload videos around. You’d think it was the redheaded goddess Malenia, Blade of Miquella. I mean, Kotaku Dot Com—and myself in particular—have blogged quite a bit about the ruthless Queen of Rot. Her tough-ass fight even birthed a legendary player who was immortalized in the game as a fan-made summon and was gifted IRL swords by Bandai Namco and FromSoftware. But nah, Malenia was the second most popular boss to center content on. The first? Margit, The Fell Omen, the first enemy you encounter after the Grafted Scion and the forgotten Soldier of Godrick.
Elden Ring also features 10 different classes. Of the available archetypes you can choose from to start your adventure in the Lands Between, the Samurai class was the most popular among uploaded videos. Second was the Hero, with the third being the Wretch, maybe the game’s hardest archetype because of its abysmal starting equipment and stats.
Clearly, Elden Ring has become FromSoftware’s most mainstream game thus far. While it’s unforgiving in the way Soulslikes tend to be, what FromSoft has built is compelling enough for folks to try out and be enamored by. Whether it wins any Game of the Year awards remain to be seen. However, based on these YouTube Gaming figures, it seems Elden Ring’s prospects are looking good.