Action role-playing games have been around for a while now and two studios have mastered the art of making these video games: FromSoftware and Bethesda Game Studios. Most of FromSoftware’s video games are Soulslike games like Elden Ring, Dark Souls series, and Bloodborne created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, while Bethesda is well-known for its The Elder Scrolls series.
Both of these studios have sold many units but Bethesda holds a record that Miyazaki has been struggling to reach for a long time. The fifth installment in The Elder Scrolls series, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has sold over 60 million units as of June 2023. It is to be noted that Skyrim has witnessed various re-releases over the years but still, it is a big milestone for the studios.
Hidetaka Miyazaki’s games are yet to beat the record set by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
In June 2023, the director of Bethesda Game Studios’ The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim revealed in an interview with IGN that the game has managed to sell over 60 million units since its initial 2011 release,
“We’re sitting here, it’s 12 years after Skyrim – We’re looking at a game that has over 60 million copies, and all these people playing… they’re still playing it.”
Now, Skyrim couldn’t do all this without the re-releases. In the past decade, the game has been released four times, making it compatible with the new generation of consoles. 60 million is indeed a huge number.
In case you’re wondering which game secures the top position in the best-selling video games list, it’s Tetris. With 520 million units sold, Tetris remains the most popular video game of all time.
Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s best-selling game
Another studio that is popular for making action role-playing games is FromSoftware. Thanks to its president, Hidetakta Miyazaki, they have managed to release some of the best Soulslike games of all time. The subgenre is quite popular, however, none of Miyazaki’s games have managed to beat Skyrim‘s record.
As of now, Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s best-selling game. As per IGN, Elden Ring has now sold roughly 23 million units since its release. Achieving this number in just 2 years and without a DLC is indeed impressive. The number will only expand with the release of Elden Ring‘s upcoming DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree. Bestheda also plans to expand its Elder Scrolls series as they confirmed in an X post that developers are working on the next game in the series.
