Concise and unassuming at first glance, Bethesda’s Twitter post proudly announced that the game has already been played by three million players, calling it the biggest launch in id Software’s history and noting it reached that milestone seven times faster than DOOM Eternal. While some were excited about the news, most commenters didn’t take it with much enthusiasm, calling into question both the “three million” figure and Bethesda’s claims about TDA outperforming Eternal.
With jokes about Bethesda taking a page from Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ book and hiring Ubisoft’s PR team to write this post, the community pointed out that revealing the number of players instead of copies sold is a major red flag, since this number doesn’t allow for calculating revenue due to the existence of subscription services, which let players access games far cheaper than the typical $70-$80 price big studios usually charge nowadays.
The publisher’s “seven times faster” claim has also been scrutinized, with some emphasizing that this comparison is blatantly unfair and is only meant to make The Dark Ages look good, given that the new game was available on Xbox Game Pass day one, while DOOM Eternal arrived there only on October 1, 2020 – six months after its launch.
All factors combined – the publisher’s hesitation to reveal actual sales numbers, The Dark Ages’ absolutely atrocious performance on Steam, the “seven times faster” claim, and the game’s ridiculous €80 price tag in Europe (around $89) – lead me to believe that while the game is still good and three million people did indeed play it, a large portion of those players accessed the game via Xbox Game Pass for as little as $12 a month instead of paying full price, which could ultimately hurt both id Software and Bethesda revenue-wise.
