Bandai Namco says some obscure action-RPG called Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree "was a hit" that made a ton of money
Who would've thunk it
Hold onto your seats, folks, Elden Ring's universally acclaimed Shadow of the Erdtree DLC that everybody has been raving about for weeks sold really well.
As revealed in Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco's first quarter financial results, Shadow of the Erdtree boosted the company's digital operating profit in its entertainment sector by 553% year-over-year, enough to prompt this ecstatic, over-the-top reaction in the document: "On the business side, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, the major downloadable content of the home console game Elden Ring, was a hit, contributing to the operating results in the Digital Business."
Elsewhere in the results summary, Bandai Namco showed a 24.8% increase in net sales and a 56.3% rise in profit for the three months that ended on June 30, 2024. It's no coincidence that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree released about a week prior on June 21.
Of course, none of this is a surprise. Shadow of the Erdtree was an instant success at launch, beating giant full-game releases like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in ratings and selling five million units in its first three days. The DLC's success rivals some of the biggest DLC releases of all time, including Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. As soon as it became the highest rated DLC for an RPG ever, CDPR even congratulated Bandai Namco with some awesome custom art of Geralt in Elden Ring.
In a different type of numbers game, this Elden Ring sicko takes the limiters off NG+ scaling, cranks Shadow of the Erdtree to NG+ 1,000 and still no-hits a 500,000-HP Messmer.
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After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.