Elden Ring: Nightreign not only arrived at the 2025 RPG party but it kicked the doors down, stole the playlist, and left the other games clutching their launch numbers. FromSoftware’s experimental foray into multiplayer Soulslike territory has obliterated expectations and, more impressively crushed every other major RPG release this year in day-one Steam player count.
According to SteamDB, Nightreign reached over 313,000 concurrent players on Steam on the first day of release. For context: Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tapped out at 256K, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 couldn’t break 122K, and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered despite being a nostalgia-fueled fever dream, landed at just under 217K. Sorry, fellow RPGs. There’s a new monarch on the throne.
From Skepticism to “Holy Hell, Elden Ring Did It Again”
When Nightreign was first announced, the Souls faithful didn’t rejoice. A co-op spin-off? No PvP? Smaller in scope? A $40 price tag? It sounded like a side project built in the break room by an intern with too much Mountain Dew and not enough restraint. But once again, FromSoftware pulled off the impossible making a completely different game that somehow still sticks to a Soulsborne element. Only this time, you’re not dying alone in a swamp but with a friend or a random player.
FromSoft could have easily slapped an $80 tag on Nightreign and added a battle pass featuring grayscale horse armor, but they didn’t. Instead, they launched Nightreign for a lean $40. And players responded by cracking open their wallets very quickly. Add to that a solid launch, tight (albeit limited) multiplayer mechanics, and the nice Soulslike sauce, and it results in an absolute day-one blowout. Even Miyazaki admitted it was a risk. But after these numbers, safe to say it paid off.
313K players on Steam is fantastic. But is it sustainable? That’s the big question. Right now, the game is still hovering around 264,415 concurrent players at the time of this writing, and we’re not even through launch weekend. If Nightreign can maintain even a fraction of this, FromSoft’s latest could go from “fun little spinoff” to multiplayer staple in no time.
The studio has already teased duo-support for future updates, so expect smoother co-op, balance tweaks, and probably some tough bosses designed to make your duo rage-quit in stereo.
Steam’s numbers are just one slice of the pie. We don’t yet have solid figures for PlayStation or Xbox, but let’s not kid ourselves—Nightreign likely popped off there too. The numbers are expected to drop next week. With cross-platform still a no-go for now, imagine the chaos when that feature arrives. Nightreign might become the co-op Souls experience we never knew we needed—but can’t imagine losing.
FromSoftware Cinematic Universe is Only Getting Started
In case you’re wondering what’s next: The Duskbloods is possibly been in development for the Nintendo Switch 2, which is probably the weirdest sentence you’ll read today. The rumored Bloodborne-lite may or may not leave Nintendo’s clutches, but so many of us buying a Switch 2 now, aren’t we?
Elden Ring: Nightreign though a risky experiment, but these day-one numbers speak louder than any forum debate. FromSoftware proves yet again that it doesn’t need to follow trends but sets them. Be a PvP purist, a Souls soloist, or someone trying to survive with a co-op buddy who keeps pulling aggro, one thing is clear: the Nightreign has begun and it’s off to one hell of a start.
