While
the
initial
stats
for
DOOM:
The
Dark
Ages
seemed
soft,
id
Software
has
shared
data
suggesting
the
game
is
actually
doing
quite
well,
based
on
the
nebulous
concept
of
what
“good”
is
by
Game
Pass
standards.
According
to
Bethesda,
DOOM:
The
Dark
Ages
has
hit
3
million
players
in
its
first
week,
achieving
this
feat
7x
faster
than
DOOM:
Eternal
did.
That
also
makes
it
id’s
biggest
software
launch
to
date.
It’s
unclear
if
they
mean
the
biggest
launch
in
terms
of
pure
player
numbers
or
if
they
mean
in
terms
of
revenue,
but
I’m
assuming
they
are
referring
to
players.
Thank
you
for
making
DOOM:
The
Dark
Ages
the
biggest
launch
in
id’s
history
–
7x
faster
to
3
million
players
than
DOOM
Eternal.
pic.twitter.com/c0SKR97FO8—
Bethesda
(@bethesda)
May
20,
2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
You’ll
note
that,
as
is
becoming
the
norm,
the
numbers
only
reference
how
many
have
played
the
game
rather
than
actual
copies
sold.
That
is,
of
course,
because
of
Game
Pass
and
other
subscription
services.
Total
players
have
now
become
a
more
important
metric
for
Microsoft,
or
at
least
that’s
what
Microsoft
is
saying
publically.
Once
we
start
having
to
consider
how
a
game’s
success
is
measure
in
terms
of
Game
Pass
player
counts,
it
becomes
almost
impossible
for
us
normies
to
reliably
judge
how
well
a
title
is
doing.
Only
Microsoft,
Bethesda
and
id
Software
really
know
what
sort
of
metrics
they
are
looking
for
in
relation
to
Game
Pass.
What
I
think
we
can
say
with
some
certainty
is
the
3m
player
stat
means
DOOM:
The
Dark
Ages
probably
got
a
lot
of
players
through
Game
Pass
rather
than
sales.
I
say
this
because
the
circumstantial
evidence
available
seems
to
point
toward
DOOM
struggling
compared
to
some
other
recent
releases
like
The
Elder
Scrolls
IV:
Oblivion
Remastered,
Clair
Obscur:
Expedition
33.
I’d
love
a
deeper
breakdown
of
sales
vs
Game
Pass,
but
we
will
likely
never
get
that.
The
other
only
piece
of
data
we
will
get
will
sales
charts
whenever.
