Crimson Desert has now sold 5 million copies, marking a significant milestone less than a month after its release date.
Pearl Abyss’ single-player open world action adventure launched on March 19 and sold 2 million copies in a day. It then hit 3 million sales in five days, and now, just over a week later, it reached 4 million. Now, it’s added another million on top, with no sign of slowing down.
“Thank you to every Greymane who has joined us on this journey, experienced the world of Pywel, and supported the game,” Pearl Abyss said. “Reaching this milestone would not have been possible without your support and we are truly grateful.”
Sentiment around Crimson Desert has improved significantly since launch, with Steam user reviews rising from ‘mixed’ to ‘very positive.’ Pearl Abyss has released significant updates remarkably quickly — in fact, I would say the pace of game-changing patches has, for a big, triple-A single-player open world game, been unprecedented. Yet another group of sweeping improvements was made over the weekend, and I wouldn’t put it past Pearl Abyss to release a similarly significant patch out this weekend.
What’s clear is that Crimson Desert is a hit. According to the Korean business press, Pearl Abyss spent seven years making Crimson Desert, with development costs coming in at 200 billion won (approx. $133 million). Earlier in April, Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, said in a Substack post that Crimson Desert had made $200 million across platforms (PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S). But that was two weeks ago, so we’re looking at even bigger numbers now.
The natural next question is whether Pearl Abyss will expand the game with DLC, or even an expansion. Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young has said there are no solid plans for any DLC, and cast doubt on the possibility of official mod support, but a Nintendo Switch 2 version is apparently being explored.
We’ve got plenty more on Crimson Desert, including praise from the director of The Witcher 3, a hidden food consequence system that a modder has restored, and an impressive character creator mod. We recommend you take a look at our guide to Things to Do First in Crimson Desert, plus Things Crimson Desert Doesn’t Tell You (we’ve got 28 and counting!). We’ve also got a guide to the Best Early Weapons we recommend picking up, the Best Skills to Get First (including a handy explainer of the skills system), and 34 Essential Tips and Tricks to help you succeed in Pywel.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
