Inquiry Already Underway Over Lacklustre DOOM: The Dark Ages Opening

DOOM: The Dark Ages hasn’t exactly got off to the strongest start if its Steam concurrent numbers are to go by.

While the metric only gives us a small slice of the release’s overall performance, it’s currently topped out at 30,802 players, with the number looking unlikely to increase significantly over the weekend.

To put things into perspective, predecessor DOOM Eternal peaked at 106,891 players, so more than three times what id Software’s latest has achieved.

There are caveats to consider, though: The Dark Ages is available through Xbox Game Pass, which could have pulled players away from Steam. Although it’s worth mentioning that both Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered are both also available in Microsoft’s subscription service, and have significantly more players than DOOM.

It’s also possible, of course, that the game may be selling better on consoles, and it’s currently third on the PS Store’s best-sellers list, behind only NBA 2K25 and Fortnite. But given the series’ history on PC, it seems unlikely for the PS5 version to be selling significantly better.

Of course, all of this has led to an inquiry into exactly what’s gone wrong. The game obviously has strong reviews – we awarded it an 8/10 – but some have pointed out there have simply been too many good games releasing recently for fans to keep up.