FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa Corporation has released its first earnings report since the release of Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, and it put the game’s sales head-to-head with Elden Ring.
Ever since FromSoftware announced Armored Core 6, fans have been comparing the game with Elden Ring. Kadokawa Corporation is doing the same with its financial reports, giving both fans and investors some actual numbers to work with. This includes some sales tallies for the game and while they’re solid, they fall very well short of Elden Ring.
Elden Ring has been the standout title for FromSoftware since its release in 2022. On the other hand, Armored Core 6 is a more recent release from the Japanese video game developer. While it’s still too early to definitively conclude how much of a success the game is, fans can draw some preliminary conclusions based on Kadokawa’s financial reports that cover August to September 2023.
How many copies has Armored Core 6 sold?
Armored Core 6 has been a commercial success, selling around 3 million units in the first two months after its release. Those numbers pale in comparison to Elden Ring, but that’s mostly down to how massive Elden Ring was.
There is no denying that Elden Ring was a huge success after its release in February 2022. According to the 2021-22 financial reports from Kadokawa, Elden Ring generated incredible sales and revenue. The game reportedly sold around 12 million copies just weeks after its launch and was confirmed to hit over 20 million units sold earlier this year. Having that level of success in consecutive releases is almost impossible, even for a studio as beloved as FromSoftware.
In contrast, Armored Core 6 sold about 1.2 million units on Steam alone in its first two weeks and over 700,000 copies in Japan alone. Next to Elden Ring’s sales that sounds small, but the game still topped sales charts in multiple countries on multiple platforms. The game reportedly sold around 3 million units within two months after its launch, which is a figure comparable to Dark Souls 3. Dark Souls 3 eventually hit over 10 million units sold in 2020, a number that comparatively few games ever reach.
Armored Core 6 generated a strong critical and fan response and Kadokawa expects its sales to continue strongly for some time.
Also part of the financial reports were acknowledgments of steep year-over-year drops in sales and revenue from declining sales of Elden Ring. As a two-year-old game, Elden Ring’s sales naturally dropped in 2023 relative to 2022. The company is likely hoping to bounce those numbers back up with the Elden Ring DLC.