More than 2 million people have played/been brutalized by Elden Ring Nightreign in its first 24 hours
Elden Ring Nightreign is here, and as I write this there are nearly 300,000 players roaming Limveld in pursuit of statistically-unlikely success in FromSoft's roguelike remix. The launch hasn't been without criticisms, many of which we shared in our Nightreign review, but that apparently hasn't slowed the influx of newly-christened Nightfarers.
In a tweet from the official Elden Ring X account, Bandai Namco announced that two million people have played Elden Ring Nightreign in its first 24 hours. "Darkness fell over Limveld, and two million Nightfarers rose up against it," Bandai Namco said. "Thank you for your support."
The spinoff title might have only reached a third of Elden Ring's day one player count, but that's still a huge number of players, equating to sales that many games published on Steam would be thrilled to attract in total across their entire lifespans.
Not all those Nightfarers are thrilled with their early runs, however. Citing brutal singleplayer difficulty, struggles to coordinate in matchmade parties, and arbitrarily punishing difficulty tuning, early Steam reviewers have left the game at a "Mixed" rating, with only 64% leaving positive reviews. As a result, Nightreign has the unfortunate honor of being FromSoft's worst-reviewed game launch on Steam.
It's worth noting that this isn't the first time we've seen a less-than-stellar Steam reception for an Elden Ring release. When the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC launched in 2024, it quickly fell to a similar "Mixed" rating a day after its release, with just 61% of reviews coming in positive as players slammed headfirst into its seemingly vertical difficulty curve.
A year later, that DLC is generally held in high regard by Elden Ring sickos: Shadow of the Erdtree currently sits at an overall Steam review rating of "Mostly Positive." Clearly, FromSoft's stumbles are capable of redemption arcs, but we'll have to see whether singleplayer balance patches and a potential duos mode earns Nightreign a lasting place in the community's good graces.