Bandai Namco has high expectations for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree as players flock to the game on Steam

The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring is finally dropping later today. Some people have even started playing it already, depending on their timezone, but there’s no point being jealous when it’s so close to release. It’s not just fans who’ve been feverishly waiting for this expansion, though; publisher Bandai Namco’s own anticipation has been described as “sky-high” for what it’s calling the company’s “most ambitious” DLC launch.

This is according to Bandai Namco Europe’s chief marketing and sales officer Anthony Macare, who told GamesIndustry.biz that Shadow of the Erdtree “rivals the scope of a standalone game.” This is why it’s been marketed almost like a brand new title, with Bandai Namco releasing multiple physical and digital editions.

This obviously includes a new version of Elden Ring that comes packaged with the DLC, which is meant to attract new players. Macare added that Bandai Namco is expecting Shadow of the Erdtree to generate a lot of new sales for Elden Ring, though refrained from sharing exact targets. Since Shadow of the Erdtree is intended to be Elden Ring‘s only DLC, the promise of a complete package could entice those who skipped the game in 2022 to pick it up.

At the very least, in the run-up to the DLC’s release, Macare has claimed Elden Ring‘s active player count has already “reached new heights” thanks to both returning players and new ones, meaning some couldn’t wait for the DLC to drop before picking up the game. That does make some sense, though, considering you need to defeat two specific bosses before you can access the DLC.

As for the game’s improved player counts, while there’s no public data on the PlayStation and Xbox versions, we can see how Elden Ring is performing on Steam via SteamDB. Although it’s not managed to reach the highs of its launch (Elden Ring peaked at 953,426 concurrent players in March 2022), the Steam player count has steadily gone up since the middle of May, recently breaking 200,000 concurrent players for the first time since 2022. According to Steam’s sales charts, Elden Ring is also the top selling game on the platform at the time of writing, with the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion in second place.

Elden Ring was already a major success when it launched, having sold a staggering 12 million copies in its first two weeks, cementing it as a new IP for Bandai Namco. Just last week, the official FromSoftware Twitter account announced Elden Ring had crossed the 25 million sales mark. Ironically, such overwhelming success only means Bandai Namco wants even more of it. So, while it has high expectations for Shadow of the Erdtree, let’s hope they’re not so unreasonable that the DLC is deemed a financial failure.