Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree isn’t out until Friday, but it’s already breaking some records for a DLC expansion.
After the review embargo for the colossal expansion was lifted, Shadow of the Erdtree opened to the best Metacritic score of any From Software title’s DLC to date with a whopping 95 average from over 55 critic reviews on PS5.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree set to continue From Software RPG’s dominance
But perhaps more staggering is that the rating not only places it well inside the top 40 best scores of all time on the site for games, but it’s also the highest average score for any DLC ever.
For context, the previous expansion high for a From Software game is Astorias of the Abyss for Dark Souls, which managed an average of 89. Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters is third on 87.
The DLC is being described as something closer to a sequel than an expansion, with praise for a packed addition to the Lands Between.
The base version of Elden Ring was no score slouch itself. It racked up a 96 average when it launched in 2022. Elden Ring recently passed a massive milestone in sales, having exceeded 25 million copies sold; that’s a number that is surely going up and up once Shadow of the Erdtree drops on June 21, 2024.