Doom: The Dark Ages launched last week to rave reviews that put the game on par with both Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal. Opinions will vary on which of these three games is the best, but consensus seems to be that ‘The Dark Ages’ is a strong entry in this long running FPS franchise.
Because we just can’t have nice things, online discourse began over the weekend that focused on the games apparent lack of commercial success in comparison to previous entries, specifically focused on the games Steam concurrent player count. The game peaked over the weekend at 31,470 players, a slight drop when compared to Doom 2016 and nearly 1/3rd as many concurrent players as Doom Eternal in 2020. So what gives? Is there a significant lack of interest in general for this new Doom game? Well, maybe, but I don’t really think that’s the case, rather a confluence of factors that may have led to the game having a mediocre steam launch
Game Pass factor
The most glaring and obvious difference between a new Doom game launching in 2025 vs the previous games launching in 2016 and 2020 is that Bethesda and iD Software were purchased by Xbox in 2021 and therefore new Doom games will launch day one into Game Pass.
Game Pass will probably never end up being the “Netflix of Games” that Xbox once envisioned, but it’s still a very popular service that has seen significant growth on PC. We’ll never be able to know how many people Game Pass pulled away from potential players who normally would have played the game on Steam. But considering the recent growth of the service, the recent hot streak of quality games debuting on the service that makes signing up a no brainer, and the high global pricing Doom: The Dark Ages has, it seems highly possible that many opted to play the game for as cheaply as possible via Game Pass.
Terrible Regional Pricing
Doom The Dark Ages seems to be suffering from one of the worst global regional launch prices in recent memory. The game is $69.99 in the United States, which isn’t cheap by any means for a game that will take players anywhere from 15-20 hours to complete regardless of its high quality. The game is even more expensive in other regions, including 80€ across Europe. This Reddit thread does a great job breaking down just how expensive the game is globally and could explain its soft Steam numbers.
One could argue that Xbox is hoping players will opt for a PC game pass subscription with these prices, but without concrete insight into Xbox’s plans, it’s hard to say what the thinking was behind the way the game is priced.
There’s too many games
One very obvious answer to why Doom could be coming out the gates slowly on Steam is that there are just too many games competing with it. Two of the biggest games of the year in Oblivion Remastered and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launched just a few weeks ago AND are at least $20 cheaper with more hours of content between each game. Not to mention the dozens of other games that players play on a daily basis and it could have lead to a scenario where the game was always going to have a soft launch on Steam.
What does this all mean for Xbox and id software? It’s too early to say, but I’d be surprised if the game doesn’t end up doing well enough. The game is already topping the charts on Xbox and PlayStation, and is likely to have found an audience on the continually growing PC Game Pass. If id fail to disclose how many players have played the game we may be left with a question of just how well the game did compared to previous entries. With the game receiving great reviews and positive word of mouth, I’ll go out on a limb and say that The Dark Ages ends up being another successful game in this long lasting series.
