Dark Souls Series Has Sold 8 Million Copies Worldwide
The Dark Souls franchise is still seen as niche by many gamers but the series has grown out of its cult status from Demon’s Souls into a series that attracts millions of fans. The uncompromising difficulty, huge open worlds and unique mechanics have proven to be a hit with role-playing players and Famitsu has now revealed that the sales of the two Dark Souls games across all platforms has reached an impressive 8 million copies worldwide.
What is interesting is that despite From Software being a Japanese developer, the series hasn’t fared particularly well in their home country. Sales in Japan are only around a fifth of the total sales from other territories, with the number of copies sold hovering around 300,000 per title. The breakdown for the figures includes the fact that the first Dark Souls title has sold more than 5 million units, with 3.25 million of those on PC. Meanwhile, Dark Souls 2 has moved around 2 million copies while Scholar of the First Sin and the Artorias of the Abyss bundle have each sold 500,000 copies.
Although Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne have not been included in these sales figures, they are widely considered to be spiritually part of the franchise as they feature many of the same mechanics and gameplay ideas. When sales figures for these games are included in the overall number, it is likely that From Software has sold around 10 million copies of their games in the last decade.
It’s no surprise then that Dark Souls III was announced at this year’s E3 considering the success of the franchise. The news might also go some way to explaining why series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki was so keen to point out that the upcoming title will not be the last entry in the series. The game is due out in 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.