It’s been a month since FromSoftware’s shiny new ARPG Elden Ring came along and blew our collective minds. In that time we’ve already seen speedrunners break it to the point that its 50+ hour clear time was reduced to less than half-an-hour, while more creative players have been showing off characters stylised as everything from anime protagonists to Kratos from God of War. However, according to PlayStation 5 and Steam Elden Ring achievement data, some people may have spent more time tweaking their Tarnished than actually exploring the Lands Between. Be warned, spoilers ahead.
According to PSNProfiles, PS5 players have had a pretty successful time of things out on the road, but a small percentage – 16.1% to be more precise – are still struggling to make their way past Margit, the Fell Omen. In fact, 10.4% of players haven’t even made their way to Roundtable Hold yet.
Of course, there are a number of reasons for this. Some may have only just begun their journey, while others have foregone the starting areas in favour of adventures further afield. And then there are those who have given up on reforging the Elden Ring completely. The numbers grow when looking at Steam, where just over 20% of players haven’t reached the main player hub, while 27.1% have yet to fell Margit.
Looking at the stats at the opposite end of Elden Ring’s runtime, it’s clear that Ranni the waifu witch has players down horrendously, with 27% of players achieving the Age of Stars ending on PS5. To be fair to them, 26.1% have reached the vanilla ‘Elden Lord’ ending, while nearly 25% of players have embraced chaos and walked the path of the ‘Lord of Frenzied Flame’.
The grand towers of Raya Lucaria rise gracefully from the center of the vast lake of Liurnia, a hub of magic and war. #ELDENRING pic.twitter.com/qJg2Z7a6v7
— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) March 22, 2022
The difference is far more pronounced on Steam, where 13.1% of players have wifed up Ranni, compared to 9.2% choosing to take the throne for themselves. Just 5.7% have seen the credits roll as Lord of Frenzied Flame.
With fewer Steam players completing Elden Ring, it’s unsurprising that far more PS5 players have attained all of the game’s achievements. While a mere 3.2% of Steam’s Tarnished have collected them all, an impressive 23% of PlayStation’s finest have added Elden Ring’s platinum trophy to their collection.
Perhaps the biggest surprise from the data is that Malenia – who is widely regarded as the most difficult of the Elden Ring bosses to defeat – isn’t actually the boss players on both platforms have conquered the least (30.8% on PS5, 18.6% on Steam). For both PlayStation (28.7%) and Steam (13.6%) players, that accolade goes to Dragonlord Placidusax, who is tucked away in Crumbling Farum Azula.
While Placidusax doesn’t quite make an appearance on our Elden Ring boss order list, Skyrim taught us that if it roars and breathe fire, we should probably kill it. From here on out, it’ll be interesting to see just how many players manage to tangle with the game’s toughest opponents and come out on top.