After over five years of development, Crimson Desert is just days away from its debut. And if the early numbers from Steam are any indication, Crimson Desert is on course to have a very big launch. According to Alinea Analytics, Crimson Desert is currently tracking even higher than Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 at the same point in their release cycles.
As reported by Alinea, Crimson Desert has sold approximately 400,000 pre-launch copies on Steam, which at $70 per game, would come close to $20 million in revenue three days before its release. By comparison, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 had $5.2 million in pre-launch sales on Steam three days before its release, while Expedition 33 had only $2.4 million in the same period.
However, both Expedition 33 and Deliverance 2 enjoyed sustained success on Steam, with $95.5 million and $101.3 million earned respectively after 120 days. There’s no guarantee that Crimson Desert will be able to match those numbers, since it’s going to come down to how players receive the game and whether word of mouth will carry it forward to even higher sales.
Alinea estimates that Crimson Desert has approximately 2.2 million wishlists on Steam, but the real question is simple: How many of those wishlists will translate into actual sales? We may not get a firm answer until sometime after the game is already out.
Console players were finally able to see Crimson Desert on PlayStation 5 Pro earlier this month, while the game’s developer, Pearl Abyss, showed off Crimson Desert’s performance on a normal PS5 in partnership with PlayStation Japan. Pearl Abyss has revealed that Crimson Desert will include Denuvo DRM, a controversial anti-piracy technology. The company also shared its pre-load date and times for players who want to get a jump on the release.
Crimson Desert is available for preorder on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S ahead of its debut on March 19.
