Elite Dangerous has sold 3m copies, Horizons 1.3m (43% of basegame owners)

[StuartGT]

Elite Dangerous Sales - London Stock Exchange

Elite Dangerous has exceeded 3 million base game units. Previously the Company has reported "franchise units" for Elite Dangerous whereby the Elite Dangerous: Horizons, sold at the same price as the base game, was also counted as one unit. The Company has now simplified unit reporting to state gross unit sales of the base game only.

For comparative purposes cumulative franchise units for Elite Dangerous are now over 4.3 million.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/FDEV/13934373.html

 

[Guest193293]

Spacelegs/Atmospheric edition 12.3m (98% of basegame owners) lol
Seriously, 43% for horizons feels like a weak percentage.

 

[Termite Altair]

Seriously, 43% for horizons feels like a weak percentage.

It does, but then I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't. A lot of people buy a game, play it once, and then never touch it again. xD In that light 43% might be a great percentage. *shrug*

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

I wonder how many players bought a second/third licence of the game.
I have 2...

It does, but then I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't. A lot of people buy a game, play it once, and then never touch it again. xD In that light 43% might be a great percentage. *shrug*

So I'm rebalancing the count!

 

[Filroden]

Spacelegs/Atmospheric edition 12.3m (98% of basegame owners) lol
Seriously, 43% for horizons feels like a weak percentage.

They wouldn't report players who have lifetime passes, etc, so the actual number of players with access to Horizons is likely to be higher than those that actually bought it as an expansion.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Spacelegs/Atmospheric edition 12.3m (98% of basegame owners) lol
Seriously, 43% for horizons feels like a weak percentage.

Does it make you feel better to know 100% of Horizons owners also purchased the base game?

 

[Old Duck]

Mass Effect Andromeda sold over 2 million copies its first week of release.

That said, I do not own MEA, and I'm a big fan of ME2 and ME3. If you didn't know (ha), I don't like buggy games.

I couldn't easily find the numbers for No Man's Sky, and being a console gamer, I'm personally not interested in Eve or X4, though their sales numbers might also help put the OP into perspective.

 

[Cosmo]

Elite Dangerous Sales - London Stock Exchange

Elite Dangerous has exceeded 3 million base game units. Previously the Company has reported "franchise units" for Elite Dangerous whereby the Elite Dangerous: Horizons, sold at the same price as the base game, was also counted as one unit. The Company has now simplified unit reporting to state gross unit sales of the base game only.

For comparative purposes cumulative franchise units for Elite Dangerous are now over 4.3 million.

That's good. Congrats.

Spacelegs/Atmospheric edition 12.3m (98% of basegame owners) lol
Seriously, 43% for horizons feels like a weak percentage.

Yeah when we get the space legs DLC sales will triple for sure.

 

[shreddog]

Mass Effect Andromeda
That said, I do not own MEA, and I'm a big fan of ME2 and ME3. If you didn't know (ha), I don't like buggy games.

I haven't noticed many bugs in it.
Good game to.

 

[Kaltern]

Mass Effect Andromeda sold over 2 million copies its first week of release.

That said, I do not own MEA (and I'm a big fan of ME2 and ME3). If you didn't know (ha), I don't like buggy games.

I couldn't easily find the numbers for No Man's Sky, and being a console gamer, I'm personally not interested in Eve or X4, though their sales numbers might also help put the OP into perspective.

Yes but ME:A was an awful game, ruined by amateur developers, terribly project leads and a story that was attempting to include as many minority groups as they could fit in....which looked awful.

At least ED, regardless of its...many...flaws, is still selling, and growing in player base. And while the original ME trilogy was, more or less pretty good, it doesn't have the replayability that Elite does.

Besides, Frontier are so rich now they don't need to worry so much about ED sales rocketing.. and I suspect they are putting a LOT of effort into the next expansion... that really could make a big difference to the game's interest level I think.

 

[Factabulous]

So .. in the game dead? Asking for a friend

 

[StuartGT]

So .. in the game dead? Asking for a friend

It's just had a record 30 day average concurrent players on Steam, so yes! [haha]

 

[Old Duck]

Yes but ME:A was an awful game, ruined by amateur developers, terribly project leads and a story that was attempting to include as many minority groups as they could fit in....which looked awful.

I'm glad you see the sublime point I was making

 

[BDelacroix]

There are probably purchased copies that were never "opened".
I also harbor a suspicion that some who haven't bought horizons are hoping it will be made "free" one day.

RE: ME:A

I hold a theory, and I'm not alone, that you sell your product based on the success of your previous product. Unless it is your first, that's the hardest one.

ME:A sold so many because mass effect was very popular even with the fiasco that was 3.

This works for movies, as well.

 

[Old Duck]

I hold a theory, and I'm not alone, that you sell your product based on the success of your previous product.

Totally agree.

Unless it is your first, that's the hardest one.

Though good marketing and old-fashion hype can go a long way. NMS is a perfect example. Good initial reviews can also make or break a product. While Horizon Zero Dawn was not GG's first game, it was their first game of that genre, and they knocked it out of the park, both in terms of quality and sales.

even with the fiasco that was 3

I actually enjoyed ME3! The ending, not so much, but like LOST, I have my own narration for how the story ended

My original purpose in posting those numbers is to put 3 million, which sounds like a lot, into perspective (especially over 4 years and three platforms). I tried to stick to the genre, loosely-speaking, since it's silly to compare ED to a game like Fortnite. I'd be curious where a small Indie game like FTL fits into the list, but not curious enough to look it up myself.

 

[Shiro Akai]

I wonder how many players bought a second/third licence of the game.
I have 2...

[/FONT]

I don't. Have one account but it's Base + Horizon.

Mass Effect Andromeda sold over 2 million copies its first week of release.

Typical hype that came out on the original ME trilogy back*. Also - mention how much of that 2M copies were refunded / abandoned due to bugs and errors within that first week of release. I still remember massive hype before premiere and equally massive let down just after.

* - similar could be observed with SW Phantom Menace. First Star Wars movie after RotJ. People literally invaded cinemas. Only to leave it with mixed feelings.
"Meesa dun kno what to think of itsa"

That said, I do not own MEA, and I'm a big fan of ME2 and ME3. If you didn't know (ha), I don't like buggy games.

Fan of original ME trilogy but ME:A I bought just like 2 months ago. As a game itself it isn't bad. Bugs were fixed and I haven't encountered any issues while playing. But as one review stated: you can't patch lack of story". I can agree, to a degree. As there is story and setting, it's nowhere near previous parts. It's totally different title, just shares some setting .

It's just had a record 30 day average concurrent players on Steam, so yes! [haha]

Please, we all know that only 2.8% play on Steam. Rest uses ED Launcher, right? Right?

 

[StuartGT]

Seriously, 43% for horizons feels like a weak percentage.

It's very difficult to find sales data for expansions to games, although I have had limited success with the excellent Witcher 3, courtesy of CDPR's financials (reported by Tweaktown):

(15-11) / 15 = 26% of Witcher 3 series' total revenue came from the expansions.

(15-11) / 11 = 36%: the amount of revenue earned from expansions compared to Witcher 3 itself.


It looks to me like 43% of CMDRs having bought Horizons is a good percentage.

 

[Old Duck]

Also - mention how much of that 2M copies were refunded / abandoned due to bugs and errors....

That standard can be applied to any game. Let's look at Elite on PS4:

Only 46.4% of players (people who have actually installed the game) buy a new ship. This means 53.7% of players either really love their starter Sidewinder, or they quit playing very early on in the game. Since only 25.5% complete 50 missions, it's probably the latter.

"Meesa dun kno what to think of itsa"

I recently used Jar Jar to describe the current NPC AI, LOL.

 

[EdzUp]

As others have stated this percentage doesnt include console users and a lot of other factors. 43% sounds about right as quite a lot of users could have been 'disgruntled' Mac players

 

[Ian Skippy]

Totally agree.



Though good marketing and old-fashion hype can go a long way. NMS is a perfect example. Good initial reviews can also make or break a product. While Horizon Zero Dawn was not GG's first game, it was their first game of that genre, and they knocked it out of the park, both in terms of quality and sales.



I actually enjoyed ME3! The ending, not so much, but like LOST, I have my own narration for how the story ended

My original purpose in posting those numbers is to put 3 million, which sounds like a lot, into perspective (especially over 4 years and three platforms). I tried to stick to the genre, loosely-speaking, since it's silly to compare ED to a game like Fortnite. I'd be curious where a small Indie game like FTL fits into the list, but not curious enough to look it up myself.

X4 sold less than 200k, but it is recent, very niche and has a poor launch reputation of EgoSoft. 3m is massive for the genre. Mass effect is a different genre, and studios like EA would be very disappointed with 'just' 3m sales. On pc NMS is roughly the same as ED, but I cant imagine ED can keep up on consoles, Sony hammered it home.