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DOOM: The Dark Ages Has Reportedly Sold Less Than 1 Million Copies

Out of the 3 million players Bethesda bragged about last week, 2.2 million are said to be playing through Xbox Game Pass.

Ever since AAA game studios started promoting their games by boasting about the number of players instead of how many copies they sold, many in the gaming community began to view such announcements as major red flags, meant to mislead potential players into thinking the game is successful when, in fact, it's severely underperforming behind the scenes.

With that in mind, it's no surprise that when Bethesda "pulled an Assassin's Creed Shadows" and revealed that DOOM: The Dark Ages hit three million players, many eyebrows were raised about the game's actual performance, and according to analysts, the negative reactions to the reveal are justified, with the latest DOOM performing much worse than its publisher makes it out to be.

Bethesda

According to Alinea Analytics, by the time the announcement was made, The Dark Ages had actually sold less than a million copies – 800,000 to be exact – and while that's a commendable number, it's not that impressive considering that this is DOOM we're talking about – a AAA game backed by three industry giants and an installment in arguably the most iconic FPS series of all time.

Of those 800,000 sales, Alinea estimates 200,000 were on PlayStation 5, 200,000 on Xbox, and 400,000 on Steam. The remaining players are said to have accessed The Dark Ages through Xbox Game Pass, effectively paying $12 instead of the $70 US retail price to play the game.

While this is undoubtedly a major win for Game Pass – with the entire debacle opening the eyes of many players who want to try new games without paying $70 or more and without going the "yar-har route" to how they can do that – it also means it might take longer for the new DOOM to break even and start raking in profits, which is unlikely to sit well with the studio's investors.

Another analytics firm, Ampere, reports a slightly different sales distribution, noting that out of the announced 3 million players, 500K experienced the game on PlayStation 5, while over 2 million played on Xbox – both through sold copies and Game Pass.

No matter which firm you choose to believe – Alinea, Ampere, maybe neither – their findings, combined with the observable reality of DOOM: The Dark Ages' poor performance on Steam and the general sentiment around the game being less positive than that of DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal, make it evident that the game and its $70 price tag failed to excite many players. This once again calls into question the issue of video game pricing, what a justified price for a video game really is, and, with AAA titles now losing to AAs and indies both reputationally and, at times, financially, whether there should even be such a thing as an "industry-standard price."

And what do you think about AAA games having the same price across the board? Should this practice be abolished entirely? Let us know in the comments!

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Comments 31

  • Anonymous user

    They would've sold at least twice as much on Steam if ray tracing wasn't required.

    8

    Anonymous user

    ·26 days ago·
  • Anonymous user

    What's your point? Microsoft owns Xbox which owns game pass, right? Microsoft owns Bethesda and by way ID software,  right?

    Bethesda makes money on every single gamepass subscriber that plays doom.

    If you think Bethesda lost money on doom because of game pass,  then you literally know nothing about how game pass works.

    Microsoft owns doom the dark ages, and wants you to play it with your game pass subscription.

    0

    Anonymous user

    ·10 days ago·
  • Anonymous user

    It's all the woke content! When will publishers start listening to the silent majority? Lol

    0

    Anonymous user

    ·25 days ago·
  • Anonymous user

    3 million players means they are having fun playing. When did sales mean the game is good. I have it on gamepass and plan on buying it before it leaves the pass so I can replay it. So much toxicity for such stupid reasons

    -1

    Anonymous user

    ·25 days ago·
  • Anonymous user

    It's $100 here in Canada so yea, um, no.

    2

    Anonymous user

    ·25 days ago·
  • Anonymous user

    Except Ubisoft never said they sold 3 million. That is literally made up, on a investor conference call they literally said they don't reveal numbers of copies sold.

    -2

    Anonymous user

    ·25 days ago·
  • Anonymous user

    It's 3M. I checked.

    id Software ftw!

    Not so much Bethesda.

    And honestly give us a Quake game already it'll be 20 years this October since Q4!

    2

    Anonymous user

    ·25 days ago·
  • Anonymous user

    It's just too expensive for what it is.. really isn't worth that price tag for a mid game.. simple as that.. it's gotta be special to pay such prices, I mean Clair obscur :Expedition 33 sold for less, and that's a once in a generation type of game..  AAA needs a reality check man, why pay so much for an ok game, when I can just pay a tenth, and buy another xbox 360 game second hand? That age of gaming was legendary, I'm still finding treasures!  Oh! And you can play them all offline! The whole game is on the disc!  

    2

    Anonymous user

    ·25 days ago·
  • Anonymous user

    AAA gaming is going to crash majorly hard soon and that really sucks.

    0

    Anonymous user

    ·25 days ago·
  • Anonymous user

    That's what happens when you somehow make the worst game of the trilogy. They were doing so well. Doom 2016 was good and then Doom Eternal took the best parts of 2016 and added to it which made a great game, and now they've gone backwards. I can't even put my finger on exactly what it is that's wrong. Yes, there's too many cut scenes, but it's the gameplay that's lacking more than anything. The game looks great, some of the guns are cool, the shield is awesome, but it isn't nearly as fun to play as Eternal was. Eternal took a certain type of skill. You were constantly switching guns in order to have the greatest effect on each enemy type. It was fast paced chaos. Dark Ages doesn't have that. It's still fast, but feels like it's missing a step and now most guns work against most enemies. You still want to use certain guns against certain shields, but other than that, you can just pick your favorite gun and kill everything with it. It's like they dumbed the gameplay down to make it more accessible to players who aren't good at Doom games and that took away the fun for Doom fans. There's more issues than that, but like I said, I can't really put my finger on what it is.

    0

    Anonymous user

    ·25 days ago·

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