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.

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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.

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So, what’s your take? Does this twist on Elden Ring deserve the backlash or are the critics missing something?