Pearl Abyss announces Crimson Desert has already exceeded 2 million copies sold worldwide just 1 day after it launched. As a single player spin-off of Crimson Desert Online, it’s been a long road for Pearl Abyss after revealing the game all the way back in 2020 during The Game Awards. Since then, Crimson Desert has continued to build excitement, quickly becoming one of 2026’s most anticipated titles, a big reason why the game was able to clear a huge sales milestone so quickly.
It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours for Pearl Abyss, and it’s freshly launched game, Crimson Desert. Leading up to the launch, the developer has been revealing all sorts of new information about the title, including rejecting the idea of microtransactions and even showcasing Crimson Desert running on a base PS5, something the fans had been eagerly waiting to see. Not all pieces of information have been embraced by the community, however, including the confirmation of the controversial Denuvo DRM system for PC players. Despite the news, it hasn’t stopped Crimson Desert from becoming a big hit right out of the gate.
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Crimson Desert Reaches 2 Million Copies Sold in 24 Hours
Just a day after the launch of Crimson Desert, developer Pearl Abyss revealed that the anticipated title was able to sell over 2 million copies in just a 24-hour span. The Tweet thanked fans for their support and confirmed that the studio is already working through feedback shared by the community. No timelines were confirmed, but the studio indicated it would be moving quickly to address the various problems and issues impacting players.
Despite the anticipation leading up to the release, the past 24 hours haven’t been smooth. In fact, once reviews hit for Crimson Desert, the stock price for Pearl Abyss dropped by 30%. It would seem that investors became worried over reviews that many people saw as “disappointing” and probably lower than the initial hype likely suggested they’d be. However, when taking a look at the entire review landscape, it doesn’t actually paint such a dire picture as they run the range from average to great. However, it would seem that the investors were likely hoping for scores that didn’t deviate quite as much and were likely more universally good.
Balance the critic averages
Balance the critic averages
Easy (6)Medium (8)Hard (10)
Despite the range of reviews, Crimson Desert launched to very impressive numbers, hitting a hit a peak of 239,045 concurrent players on Steam and huge viewership numbers on Twitch. While there aren’t specific numbers to draw on for consoles, it’s assumed that the game is doing equally well on PlayStation and Xbox. Despite the initial “Mixed” rating on Steam at launch, the score has risen slightly at the time of writing, currently sitting at “Mostly Positive” with over 16,000 reviews being written.
As mentioned in the Tweet, Pearl Abyss appears to be aware of the amount of work left to do, as Crimson Desert isn’t a perfect game by any stretch. In fact, one of the bigger current issues players continue to bring up is with the control scheme and how complicated it can be. It’s unknown if Pearl Abyss will ultimately make any sweeping changes though, as Pearl Abyss’ PR and Marketing Director Will Powers responded to a fan who was asking for a more simplified setup. Powers mentioned that learning the controls could be compared to learning how to ride a bike, with it coming naturally after practice and learning. That is to say, Crimson Desert‘s control scheme has a sharp learning curve, but according to Powers, once players become more familiar with it, it should feel more natural and easier to use.
- Released
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March 19, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
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Pearl Abyss
- Publisher(s)
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Pearl Abyss
