Elden Ring: Nightreign turned heads the moment it was announced, but it also raised a lot of questions. Could FromSoftware really reimagine its acclaimed RPG as a multiplayer?
Now that the game from director Junya Ishizaki is finally out, early reviews suggest it hasn’t quite met expectations. It even broke a franchise record, but not the kind the studio hoped for.
Departing from the single-player focus that defined previous releases, Nightreign introduces cooperative gameplay for up to three players. The spin-off attempts a risky blend of battle royale, roguelike, and soulslike elements that may feel unfamiliar to many.
Currently sitting at a 77 on Metacritic, it falls far below the 96 scored by the original Elden Ring and the 94 achieved by its 2024 expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree.
Its critical reception also lags behind other hits from the Japanese developer. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice boasts a 90 on Metacritic, while Bloodborne and Dark Souls III score 92 and 89, respectively.
This uneven reception is also reflected on Steam, where Elden Ring: Nightreign currently holds a 65% approval score, the lowest ever for a main FromSoftware release. Their only project with worse ratings on PC is the Ashes of Ariandel DLC for Dark Souls III, which has a 59% rating.
Huge numbers in spite of negative reviews
Despite landing among the studio’s lowest-rated titles, Nightreign still managed to surpass all Dark Souls records on Steam, pulling in a massive number of players at launch.
The co-op spin-off peaked at 313,593 concurrent players, with 273,012 still online as of now.
Only the original Elden Ring (2022 GOTY) from Hidetaka Miyazaki outperforms it, with an all-time peak of 953,426 concurrent users —a number that still places it among the platform’s most-played games of all time.
So, what’s your take? Does this twist on Elden Ring deserve the backlash or are the critics missing something?