DOOM: The Dark Ages has reportedly only sold 1 million copies, despite 3 million players

DOOM: The Dark Ages released on May 15 and received extremely positive scores from numerous game critics and players alike, but, according to SteamDB, which tracks the number of players for titles, the game is seeing a massive decline.

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There is some negative sentiment surrounding DOOM: The Dark Ages for its lack of glory kills, a prominent component of the previous game, DOOM Eternal, and the gameplay being generally easier than Eternal. However, despite these criticisms, the game has attracted extremely high scores from numerous reviewers, and now reports are surfacing following Bethesda's announcement that The Dark Ages has reached 3 million players, of those 3 million, only 1 million were actually sales, the rest were Game Pass.

According to Alinea Analytics, The Dark Ages has sold 800,000 copies, with 200,000 of those copies on PlayStation, 200,000 on Xbox, and 400,000 on Steam. The remaining players are enjoying the title on Xbox Game Pass. Notably, only Microsoft and Bethesda know the exact sales numbers for The Dark Ages, but something undeniable is happening with the Steam player base.

For example, The Dark Ages had a peak concurrent player count of 31,470, while Eternal peaked at 104,891. However, Eternal didn't release on Steam and Game Pass at the same time like The Dark Ages did, and, at least according to Bethesda's 3 million player count, many of those players have opted to spend the $12 on Game Pass rather than full price for the Steam version.

However, this doesn't happen for every game that is released on Steam and Game Pass simultaneously, and two recent examples of that are Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Oblivion Remastered. Both of those titles were released on Game Pass and Steam, and Expedition 33 racked up 145,063 all-time peak players, and Oblivion Remastered pulled in 216,784 all-time peak. Additionally, Expedition 33 has hit 3.3 million copies sold.

Notably, both Expedition 33 and Oblivion Remastered launched at a $49.99 price point, while The Dark Ages is priced at $69.99. But does that $20 difference really amount to such a significant delta between the all-time player counts and general response on Steam? As it appears, if the game is popular, it is popular on Steam, regardless of whether it is available on Game Pass at launch.

Despite this oddity when it comes to Steam metrics, Bethesda states in its announcement that DOOM: The Dark Ages is the biggest launch in id Software's history, and was 7x faster to 3 million players than DOOM Eternal. So, maybe just all of The Dark Ages players are on Game Pass? Unfortunately, we will never know the answer unless Bethesda or Xbox release the official numbers for The Dark Ages.