“Elden Ring” does not appear to be the most popular game of the year.
When it first came out in February, “Elden Ring” swept the gaming industry by storm. The Lands Between piqued the interest of even those who were not fans of the Souls series. “Elden Ring“ quickly became From Software’s best-selling game, with 13.4 million sales in just over a month, because of its enormous popularity. As a result, “Elden Ring” is likely to be among the top 10 most-played games of the year. But if you do, you’re mistaken.
Mat Piscatella, executive director and video game industry advisor for analytics firm The NPD Group, released the 10 most played titles of 2022 on Twitter, as discovered by ResetEra(opens in new tab) user Sullivan. The following is a list of the most popular console and PC games in the United States during the first quarter of this year.
Half of the games mentioned, as Piscatella points out, were not released during this decade. Minecraft, the sandbox hit that debuted in 2011, took the top spot. The Sims 4 came in third, while Grand Theft Auto 5 came in second. Nintendo’s social sim Animal Crossing has a lot of fans, with the current installment, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, coming in at number six. Both Warzone and Vanguard are still available for Call of Duty.
Here are the top 10 most played games of Q1 2022 in the U.S. ranked by year of initial release. (Source: The NPD Group’s PlayerPulse)
Half of the top 10 weren’t launched this decade. Elden Ring ranked 20th. Ahead of it were games like Rocket League, World of Warcraft and Skyrim. pic.twitter.com/eWXKVMFHZj
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) May 24, 2022
But what happens to “Elden Ring” now? Surprisingly, From Software’s latest was ranked 20th. Skyrim, Rocket League, and World of Warcraft, according to Piscatella, were all ranked higher. “Elden Ring’s” relatively low rating could be due to the fact that this list covers Q1 2022, which runs from January to March. While most tiles will have had three months to raise their player count, “Elden Ring” was only available for slightly over a third of that time, having launched at the end of February.