When FromSoftware announcedElden Ring Nightreignat The Game Awards last year, a lot of people didn’t know exactly what to make of it. Instead of being anElden RingDLC or a full-on sequel as some fans expected, this title was a co-op, battle royale-inspired multiplayer spin-off thatwas made by re-imaginingthe core design of its predecessor.Elden Ring Nightreign, frankly, didn’t look anything like what FromSoftware had made before. Although FromSoftware promised that the game would have an offline mode, it seemed to lack the curated single-player content that players had come to expect from the studio.
Despite the cautious attitude that fans had expressed towardsElden Ring Nightreign, many of them were pleasantly surprised by the game when it came out on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC in May 2025.Elden Ring Nightreignhad an incredibly successful launch, both critically and commercially. The title not only sold over 2 million copies in a single day, it also received largely positive reviews from players on all platforms. In spite ofElden Ring Nightreign’s overall popularity, however, the game has started to lose a lot of players, particularly on Steam. While this would be a cause of concern for most multiplayer games these days, in the case ofElden Ring Nightreign, it’s not that big of a deal.
Elden Ring Nightreign’s Declining Player Counts is Not Cause for Concern
Concurrent Player Counts for Elden Ring Nightreign on Steam Have Dropped More than 80%
Elden Ring Nightreigndebuted with over 313,000 concurrent players on Steam, roughly a third of the all-time peak player count for the originalElden Ring. The buzz surrounding the game lasted for several days, until around June 7, when its player counts began to drop dramatically. At the time of writing this article,Elden Ring Nightreignhad a peak player countof just 53,000+ on Steam in the last 24 hours. Although these are still good numbers, the active playerbase for the game is roughly 82% smaller than it was at launch, and the title now also has fewer concurrent players than the three-year-oldElden Ringon the same platform.
Elden Ring Nightreign is Not a Live Service Game, So Player Counts Don’t Matter That Much
Before players start to get worried about whetherElden Ring Nightreignis dying, it’s important to note that the game is not like other multiplayer titles on the market. As was reiterated by the game’s director, Junya Ishizaki, several months ago,Elden Ring Nightreignis not a live service title. Instead, it is a fully complete paid multiplayer game with no battle passes, microtransactions, seasons, or anything of the like. As such, a loss of players isn’t particularly damaging toElden Ring Nightreign, since the game doesn’t need to keep fans engaged over the long term in order to be commercially successful.
FromSoftware is Adding Some New Content to Elden Ring Nightreign in the Future
Even thoughElden Ring Nightreigndoesn’t have the trappings of a modern-day live service title, it is still going to get some significant content updates in the near future. FromSoftware confirmed a few days ago thatElden Ring Nightreignwill receive a two-player co-op modeon July 30, alongside a handful of quality-of-life features and some Relics filtering options. A two-player mode forNightreignwas highly requested by fans since before the game was even released, so it will likely bring a lot of lapsed players back into the game.
This month, FromSoftware has hosted some weekly Everdark Sovereign events inElden Ring Nightreign, and the company plans to continue doing so in the coming weeks.
In addition to this upcoming update, FromSoftware is also going to releasea paid DLC forElden Ring Nightreignsometime before the end of this year. This unnamed DLC, which is included at no extra cost inElden Ring Nightreign’s Deluxe Edition, will feature some new playable characters and bosses. Aside from that, however, FromSoftware has largely kept fans in the dark about the contents of the expansion. Regardless, the release of thatElden Ring NightreignDLC is bound to give the game a second wind of players, just like its future updates.
