‘DOOM: The Dark Ages’ Success Proves That Steam Charts Can’t Always Predict A Flop

Despite many players believing DOOM: The Dark Ages had flopped due to low player numbers on Steam, Bethesda has announced that the game is a massive success. According to the studio, it’s actually id Software’s biggest launch in history. Is this a sign that we’re maybe too obsessed with Steam Charts?

Steam Charts Might Not Be As Accurate As We Think

To get this out of the way, I’m just as guilty as the next person when it comes to Steam Charts. Whenever a new game launches, I immediately rush over to the site on the weekend to see how it’s performing. The proverbial wisdom is that if a title is doing really poorly on Steam, then it must be underperforming across the board. And in all fairness, this has been true in many cases. So I’m not arguing that people should stop using Steam Charts. It can be a useful tool!

However, the recent release of DOOM: The Dark Ages kind of turned this assumption on its head. On paper, the first-person shooter only peaked at 31,470 players. Heck, DOOM: The Dark Ages didn’t even manage to crack Steam’s top 10 most-played games. It wasn’t unreasonable to think it had flopped, especially considering DOOM Eternal peaked at a staggering 104,891 players in 2020. And yet, despite all this, Bethesda took to social media to announce the game’s massive success. In a statement, the studio said it was actually the studio’s most successful launch to date.

“Thank you for making DOOM: The Dark Ages the biggest launch in id’s history. 7x faster to 3 million players than DOOM Eternal.” So, what happened? How can The Dark Ages be more successful than Eternal when it had four times fewer peak players on PC? Well, it could be due to several factors — which I’ll dive into below. But at the very least, it begs the question: should we be more cautious when declaring games a flop based on Steam Charts alone?

How ‘DOOM: The Dark Ages’ Sales Beat the Steam Chart Allegations

Okay, jokes aside, I think there are a few reasons DOOM: The Dark Ages may have been a massive success. The first one is Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft doesn’t release hard player data, so we’re kind of shooting in the dark here. But could it be that a large number of PC subscribers opted to skip Steam and just play it via Game Pass instead?  

It’s certainly possible. In fact, that’s how I played DOOM: The Dark Ages. I’ve also seen quite a few players argue that the game’s pricing was a major factor. According to some fans, $70 is just “too expensive” for a 12-hour single-player campaign. Given that PC players tend to be more frugal (Steam Summer Sales have spoiled us), it makes sense that many chose to get it at a lower cost via Game Pass.

And finally, there is the possibility that Bethesda’s DOOM: The Dark Ages just simply sold really well on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. The low Steam Chart numbers were likely a shock to many, as DOOM has traditionally been a huge hit on PC. The franchise has always performed well on Steam. However, the success of DOOM: The Dark Ages is proof that games can still thrive beyond Valve’s platform. As the industry continues shifting toward digital sales and subscription services, there are just more ways to measure success. As a result, I think this makes it a bit trickier for players to understand the financials of a game from the outside looking in.