It appears the talk of Doom: The Dark Ages slow start may have to be put on pause. Today Bethesda announced that the latest in the iconic franchise has already surpassed 3 million players despite some wanting to suggest the game has flopped. In the process it has become the biggest launch in developer id’s history. 

In the social media post Bethesda says “Thank you for making DOOM: The Dark Ages the biggest launch in id’s history – 7x faster to 3 million players than Doom: Eternal.” It should be noted that this is player count and not sales, and The Dark Ages is the first id game to launch into Game Pass on day 1. Still, it is a pretty massive milestone as it reaches the number in a week’s time.

For some context, another Bethesda game that released recently, the Oblivion Remaster hit 4 million players in about 5 days’ time. Elder Scrolls is a much more popular franchise than Doom, and the nostalgia of a classic game likely played a big part in its success as well.

Doom: The Dark Ages is also arguably the strongest of the modern Doom games. We gave the game a 9 in our review saying: 

Doom: The Dark Ages takes a very positive step forward for me in the sense that it really added a narrative experience I could get invested in. The gameplay is still as tight as expected with crisp movement and the added weapons alongside the staples of Doom were a nice touch and fit well with the medieval theme, especially the shield saw.

But What About Those Steam Numbers?

Of course this announcement is going to pour some water on those that were trying to use Doom: The Dark Ages Steam numbers to suggest the game was flopping. The Dark Ages has only peaked at just above 30,000 concurrent players on the Steam platform, a far cry from the 100k+ that Doom Eternal reached at its height. 

There are a variety of factors at play that make the comparison a little more difficult however. For starters, the game launched on Game Pass and we’ve seen time and time again that Game Pass can eat into Steam numbers. It’s not always the case, but as PC Game Pass becomes more and more popular it is bound to happen more often.

Additionally, Doom: The Dark Ages had some pretty tough minimum specs on PC which means many would have been unable to play the game on Steam without a beefy system, leaving many to either play on console or miss out on the game. And lastly, Doom: The Dark Ages is a multi-platform title. Using only 1 platform’s metric is frankly a bit silly when the game is available on many, let alone one that is more popular on console.

Have you played Doom: The Dark Ages yet? Let us know what you think in the comments.