Doom: The Dark Ages Hits 3 Million Players Right Away, And The Majority Of Them Are On Game Pass Apparently

Bethesda has announced that Doom: The Dark Ages has become developer id Software's "biggest launch" in the company's 34-year history dating back to 1991.

The game reached 3 million players, and did so seven times faster than Doom Eternal. Bethesda did not share any sales numbers, however, nor do we know how much was spent on development, marketing, and other expenses. Developers are known to closely guard these kinds of details, which makes it challenging to unpack the overall success of a given game.

Another key thing to consider here is that Doom: The Dark Ages launched on Game Pass, whereas the previous games in the trilogy, Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal (2020) did not. According to Ampere Analysis, of the 3 million total players for Doom: The Dark Ages, 2 million came from Game Pass.

The Dark Ages is not currently inside the top 100 most-played games on Steam. It reached an all-time high for peak concurrent users on Steam of 31,470 on May 17, according to SteamDB.

Doom Eternal, meanwhile, peaked at more than 104,000 peak concurrent users on Steam, while 2016's Doom reached a record of more than 44,000 peak concurrent users on Steam. Doom: The Dark Ages is lagging behind both games on Steam in terms of concurrent users, but this is not necessarily a good metric to measure the results of a single-player game that's also on Game Pass.

GameSpot's Doom: The Dark Ages review scored the game an 8/10. Reviewer Alessandro Barbosa wrote, "Sometimes smart, measured changes can take the series in surprising new directions and yield some of its finest moments."