Elden Ring sees 468% player count increase following Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, but it is still being beaten by the Banana game

Elden Ring is often hailed as one of the greatest games of all time, and for good reason. In addition to its 96% score on Metacritic, it also received 331 Game of the Year Awards in 2022. Its new DLC expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, looks to continue this trend as it has already received widespread critical acclaim and is a huge hit with players. But, there is one game that is so far beating it and I’m surprised the joke has gone on for this long.

The launch of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree has brought many players back to the game over the past couple of weeks as many scrambled to get their characters to the point of being able to access the expansion. It has all been worth it as Elden Ring has peaked at over 730,000 concurrent players on Steam on Shadow of the Erdtree’s launch day, and that figure will likely continue to grow as players from the US get off work for the weekend and can play the new DLC.

Compared to this time last week, Elden Ring has seen a 468% increase in players, going from 128,000 to 730,000, losing out to the all-time peak of 953,000, but it will be interesting to see how the game performs over the weekend. This is also not taking PlayStation and Xbox into account, which will put the figure well over one million players and likely closer to two million concurrent players.

Despite the impressive figures, Elden Ring is losing only third on the Steam leaderboard right now, with Counter-Strike 2 in first place as usual. But, second place is currently held by Banana, a simple clicker game that has taken over Steam over the past week as players attempt to farm rare bananas to sell on the Steam marketplace, with some selling for over $1,300.

At the time of writing, there are over 800,000 players on Banana, beating Elden Ring by over 70,000. However, most of these are AFK as the game grants you a new banana every 18 hours, so many are leaving the game running while they go about their everyday lives. This simple game is likely generating a lot of money for its creator, and it has already spawned several copycats including Banana and Cucumber as others try and replicate the success and revenue it has had.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is available now and looks to add another 20-40 hours of story to the already expansive game. You can check out our review here.